Famous Scientists Who Were Hilariously Wrong
Science is a process, and that sometimes means that stuff we thought was true (the flat earth, hysteria, plague-curing farts) turns out to be wrong. In fact, even the most renowned scientists of history aren’t immune to a little theor-oopsing.
Einstein Didn’t Believe in Black Holes
It was his theory of general relativity that led us to them in the first place, but Albert Einstein displayed a “resistance bordering on the irrational” toward the idea of black holes. When physicist Karl Schwarzchild wrote to him to let him know, “Hey, your stuff implies the existence of an infinitely collapsing star, but that’s way dumb, lol,” Einstein was like, “Yeah, no doubt,” and refused to ever consider the idea again.
Tesla Didn’t Believe in Electrons
Similarly, despite his work with electricity ostensibly proving their existence, Nikola Tesla didn’t believe in the idea of electrons. He insisted the atom was the smallest particle and electricity was conducted through the “ether,” a theoretical substance said to permeate the universe that actually doesn’t exist. He also didn’t believe in electromagnetic waves, radioactivity or math. And he was in love with a pigeon. When it comes to most things, don’t listen to Tesla.
Galileo Thought Tides Were Just Sloshing
As forward-thinking as he was about heliocentrism, Galileo Galilei just kind of assumed the tides were caused by the motion of the Earth’s rotation, the splishy-splashy of God’s bathtub. This failed to explain why there are two tides in a day, but he dismissed the prevailing theory about the moon’s involvement as witchy nonsense. To be fair, he was trying to get back into the Catholic Church’s good graces at the time, and accusing things of being witchy is historically a good way to do so.
Linus Pauling Thought Vitamin C Cured Everything
Linus Pauling won the Nobel Prize in Chemistry in 1954 for revolutionizing our understanding of chemical bonds, but he wasn’t a medical doctor. That didn’t stop him from writing Vitamin C and the Common Cold, a book that recommends 2,300 milligrams of vitamin C a day, which we now know is around the point where you start to experience adverse reactions (e.g., shitting your brains out). He’s also the reason your mom makes you drink orange juice when you have a cold even though it does nothing. Now it’s personal, Pauling.
Francis Crick Believed in Alien Intelligent Design
In 1973, Francis Crick — yep, one of the guys who identified the DNA double helix — published a paper on “directed panspermia,” arguing that “the seeds of life are common in the universe and can be spread between worlds.” Just who is spreading them? Aliens, of course.
To be fair, we don’t know for a fact that this one isn’t true. Yet.
