Common misconceptions of scientists of the past. Examples of scientific and non-scientific misconceptions Misconceptions in scientific research

09/04/2015 at 06:29

Most diamonds are not formed from compacted coal. They are "born" at a depth of about 200 km, and coal deposits are usually located at a depth of about three kilometers.

Bats are not blind. Yes, they navigate in space with the help of echolocation, but at the same time they see quite well.

Blondes and redheads will not disappear over time. Recessive genes that are responsible for hair color can be passed down from generation to generation and through non-blonds and non-redheads.

Hair and nails do not continue to grow after death. This impression arises from the fact that the skin of a deceased person shrinks.

It is impossible to determine by the color of the snot whether a bacterial disease or a viral one. The color of this substance can vary from transparent yellow to deep green in patients with a wide variety of diseases.

Pure water is not a very good conductor of electricity. The reason a person can get an electric shock through water is because it contains minerals, dirt and other particles that conduct electricity.

You can't catch a wart from frogs and toads, but shaking hands with a person who has warts is very possible. Warts in humans are caused by papillomavirus, which only affects humans.

Ostriches do not hide their heads in the sand, even when they are scared. Thus, if they sense danger, they tend to fall to the ground and pretend to be dead.

From lack of oxygen, the blood does not turn blue - on the contrary, it acquires a darker red color. The veins just appear blue through the skin.

Sugar doesn't make kids hyperactive. Several studies have found that the activity of children was similar when consuming sugar-free and sugar-free soda.

Clicking your knuckles may irritate your co-workers, but you won't get arthritis. The real causes of osteoarthritis are age, trauma, excess weight and genetic predisposition.

Just because a product is natural doesn't mean it doesn't contain pesticides. However, the levels of pesticides in both organic and non-organic food are too low to worry about (at least that's what the USDA says.

Stress does not play a big role in the development of chronic hypertension. Severe stress can cause a temporary increase in blood pressure, but in general it does not happen. main reason hypertension. Significantly more? Genetics, smoking and unhealthy diet play a big role.

Lightning can strike the same place twice. It hits some tall buildings up to 100 times a year.

Lemmings don't commit mass suicide. However, during periods of migration, they do occasionally fall off rocks if the area is unfamiliar to them.

A person is not born with all the convolutions that he possesses in adulthood. There is evidence that, at least in several parts of the brain, the process of formation of nervous tissue continues into adulthood.

One gene is not the same as one protein. Many genes make many different proteins, depending on how the messenger ribonucleic acid (mRNA) of the gene is located in the cell. Some genes do not form proteins at all.

Goldfish have a pretty good memory. They can remember certain things for several months.

Although Aristotle was one of the greatest philosophers of all time, he also tended to err on the side of notions of female body. For example, he refused to distinguish the vagina from the urethra, and also believed that women are actually men whose genitals remained inside their bodies during the process of generation. In other words, women, in the view of Aristotle, were deformed men. That is why he believed that women are not able to produce sperm, and therefore they are passive participants in the process of "production" of children.

As ridiculous as it may sound, the “Aristotelian Declaration” said that women have fewer teeth and fewer sutures in their skulls than the opposite sex. The greatest of philosophers has used excuses like this to justify chauvinism in every aspect of life.

We sometimes confidently insist on the false, and nothing can convince us. Nevertheless, there are indisputable facts, and they, as you know, are a stubborn thing.

We offer you well-known literary errors.

A lonely sail turns white,

Like a swan's wing

And the clear-eyed traveler is sad;

A quiver at his feet, an oar in his hands.

Oh! Doesn't live with us

Genius of pure beauty;

Only occasionally does he visit

Us from heaven.

A.S. Pushkin at one time singled out the phrase "The genius of pure beauty" with the help of italics, showing that this is a quote. From his later editions, italics disappeared.

Another misconception is that Othello did not strangle Desdemona, but stabbed him with a dagger. Those who have mastered Shakespeare love to brag about this fact to those who have not read it. Meanwhile, Othello stabbed Desdemona only in the translation of B. Pasternak, who generally liked to “correct” the classics to his taste. In the original, Othello stifles his wife, which at all times meant "strangle". So those who have not read Shakespeare are right.

Are you aware of any literary misconception? Share with us!

Science is designed to penetrate into the essence of natural phenomena, to present people with a correct picture of the world. And most modern people used to trust official science, considering generally accepted scientific theories as common truths. In fact, as history shows, the development of science to this day is more a path of trial and error than a direct path to the truth. In this post - examples of common misconceptions and errors in science.

The ancient Greek philosopher and scientist Aristotle was, without a doubt, a great man. He became the founder of logic, summarized his contemporary knowledge about the world. For many centuries Aristotle was the undisputed authority in science and philosophy. The works of Aristotle were studied not only in ancient times, but also in the Middle Ages. But at the same time, his authority also served to preserve the misconceptions that were set forth there.

For example, Aristotle believed that heavy bodies fall faster than light ones, and in order for a body to move at a constant speed, a force must be applied to it. More than fifteen hundred years passed before these delusions were refuted by Galileo and Newton.

2. The search for the philosopher's stone

The study of substances and their transformations has a long history. But the craving of scientists of the past for chemical experiments had slightly different motives than today. For thousands of years, alchemists have been experimenting with the transformation of substances in order to discover the philosopher's stone, in the existence of which they were firmly convinced.

The philosopher's stone, according to their ideas, had the following properties. First, it allowed base metals (such as lead) to be converted into gold. Secondly, when taken orally, they prolonged life and cured diseases. Finally, the Philosopher's Stone could help plants grow at an astonishing rate, so that within hours they would bear ripe fruit.

Obsessed with the idea of finding the philosopher's stone, alchemists conducted many experiments, studied all the possible substances that came to hand. The philosopher's stone, of course, was never discovered, but the works of the alchemists were not in vain - they formed the basis of modern chemistry.

3. Theory of four liquids

The ancient Greek physician Hippocrates is known as the "father of medicine", to the development of which he really made an invaluable contribution. Trying to explain the cause of human diseases, Hippocrates formulated a theory according to which the balance of four fluids - blood, mucus, yellow and black bile - is of primary importance for human health. If any of the fluids is not enough, or it is in excess, this becomes the cause of the disease.

This theory dominated medicine for over 2,000 years, until the 19th century. Guided by it, doctors, for example, tried to treat many diseases with the help of bloodletting, in other cases they drank plenty of water, fed food that stimulated the production of bile, etc.

4. Theory of spontaneous generation

For a long time, scientists and philosophers were convinced that living things can spontaneously arise from non-living things. Of course, they knew how animals and plants reproduce, but they were sure that small organisms - insects, worms, mice, fish, etc., could spontaneously arise from damp soil, garbage and dirt. The writings of medieval scholars contain many examples of spontaneous generation of living beings.

True, back in the Renaissance, the theory had opponents who tried to prove by experience that no “spontaneous generation” occurs if the nutrient medium is boiled and hermetically sealed, which means that the larvae of life enter it from the outside. But the majority did not take such arguments into account, and the theory of spontaneous generation dominated until the 19th century, until it was finally refuted by the carefully staged experiments of Louis Pasteur and others.

5. Phlogiston theory

In the 17th century, chemists tried to explain combustion processes. The most suitable explanation, from the point of view, was the following - in all combustible substances there was a certain element - phlogiston, and during combustion it was released and volatilized. At the same time, many simple combustible substances were mistakenly considered complex, and vice versa. At the beginning of the 18th century all the major chemists shared the theory of phlogiston and tried to discover it. Various gases, for example, hydrogen, were taken for phlogiston. The phlogiston theory dominated chemistry for about 100 years, until, finally, oxygen was discovered, the combination of which with combustible substances actually caused combustion.

6. Theory of caloric

In the 18th and 19th centuries, the dominant theory by which physicists explained thermal phenomena was the theory of caloric. It was assumed that in all bodies there is caloric - a kind of weightless substance, the amount of which determines the degree of heating of the body, and upon contact, caloric can transfer from one body to another. Despite the fact that a number of scientists doubted the theory of caloric and expressed the correct opinion that heat is due to the movement of particles that make up the body, most of these arguments were not taken into account. A whole branch of physics, thermodynamics, grew out of the theory of caloric. It was only at the end of the 19th century that experiments clearly showed that the theory of caloric was erroneous, and the nature of heat was really connected with the movement of the particles that make up the body - molecules and atoms.

Most likely, in the near future, many of the modern scientific theories will be recognized as erroneous and replaced, but it is still too early for us to judge this.

Actions for understanding the essence of the world, studying hitherto unseen horizons are impossible without negative moments and mistakes. Scientists have to experience failures and err in their judgments, because that's how life works. It was the errors and refutations of well-known facts that contributed to the development modern science. Here are some amazing ideas of scientists of distant ages, which over time have become false.

The four humors of the human body

Ancient doctors and scientists believed that the human body consists of 4 different morphological features liquids: phlegm, blood, yellow and black bile. If their balance in the body was disturbed due to any negative factors, the person got sick. That is why, trying to bring the body into balance, ancient doctors late XIX bloodletting for centuries.

With the development of medicine and the discovery of microbiology, doctors began to look for other ways to save lives, carrying out new scientific breakthroughs every year. And “humors” were called liquids in a person, which in translation from ancient Greek means “humor”.

miasma theory

Healers believed that the cause of various diseases was miasma (rotting products and toxic substances that penetrate from the soil and sewers directly into the air). With the development of microbiology, the theory of miasms found its confirmation and explained almost all diseases, including typhoid fever, cholera, and plague.

But at the same time, the judgment has given rise to a number of curious medical solutions and unique inventions. During the Middle Ages, most doctors prescribed treatment with bad smells as a way to get rid of the disease (patients were asked to breathe intestinal gases, for example), believing that like is treated with like. In their opinion, putrefactive and unpleasant odors that provoke diseases can also cause an improvement in the condition, up to the complete elimination of the disease.

Genetic differences between human races

Until the middle of the 20th century, scientists believed that DNA changes depending on a person's belonging to a particular race. Recent studies have shown that genetic differences between most African peoples are much higher than between representatives of the European race and African Americans.

Ulcers appear due to stress and anxiety

This judgment is extremely wrong. Scientists have proven that the disease develops as a result of the vital activity of the bacterium Helicobacter pylori, and not because of the negative experiences of a person. One of the group of microbiologists deliberately took a dose of microorganisms in order to prove to the entire scientific community their connection with inflammation of both the mucous membranes and the skin.

Phrenology

This is one of the most illogical pseudosciences, which suggests that the inner world of a person and his character depend on distinctive external features. Followers of pseudoscience claim that information about a person's psychotype is easy to find out by measuring the parameters of the skull and analyzing its structure.

Telegony

Another pseudoscience that claims that offspring can inherit the genes of the female sexual partners with whom she had sexual contact before the moment of conception by the father. The doctrine was widespread among the Nazis. Ardent fans believed that an Aryan woman, after sexual contact with a non-Aryan man, was not able to give life to a purebred Aryan.

In the science of past centuries, there was a theory that the cause of most diseases is miasma (harmful substances and decay products that come from the soil and Wastewater straight into the air). Until the advent of extensive research on microbiology in the late 19th century, the miasma theory was the most common explanation for almost all ailments, including typhoid fever, malaria, and cholera. In the process of developing this theory, science has generated a number of extremely curious medical solutions and devices. During the Middle Ages, doctors sometimes prescribed bad smell treatments (such as inhalation of intestinal gases) to their patients. Apparently, they believed that if unpleasant odors can cause illness, then they can also overcome it.

Truth and error in scientific knowledge briefly. The concept of truth. Truth and delusion. Essential Characteristics of Truth

Truth is objective-subjective. Its objectivity lies in the independence of its content from the cognizing subject. The subjectivity of truth is manifested in its expression by the subject, in the form that only the subject gives it.

Truth is an endless process of development of already existing knowledge about a particular object or about the world as a whole. To characterize the procedural nature of truth, the concepts of objective, absolute, relative, concrete and abstract truth are used.

The absoluteness of truth means, firstly, complete and accurate knowledge of the object, which is an unattainable epistemological ideal; secondly, the content of knowledge, which, within certain limits of the knowledge of the object, can never be refuted in the future.

The relativity of truth expresses its incompleteness, incompleteness, approximation, binding to certain boundaries comprehension of the object.

There are two extreme points view of the absolute and relativity of truth. This is dogmatism, which exaggerates the moment of absoluteness, and relativism, which absolutizes the relativity of truth.

The connection of truth with certain specific conditions in which it operates is denoted by the concept of concrete truth. For knowledge, the conditions for revealing the truth of which are not complete enough, the concept of abstract truth is used. When the conditions of application change, abstract truth can turn into concrete and vice versa.

In the process of cognition, the subject can take untrue knowledge for truth and, conversely, truth for untrue knowledge. This inconsistency of knowledge with reality, presented as truth, is called delusion. If we are convinced that this knowledge is a delusion, then this fact becomes the truth, albeit a negative one.

51. The problem of the criterion of truth in philosophy

The main goal of knowledge is the achievement of scientific truth. In relation to philosophy, truth is not only the goal of knowledge, but also the subject of research. We can say that the concept of truth expresses the essence of science. Philosophers have long been trying to develop a theory of knowledge that would allow us to consider it as a process of obtaining scientific truths. The main contradictions on this path arose in the course of opposing the activity of the subject and the possibility of developing knowledge corresponding to the objective real world. But truth has many aspects, it can be considered from a variety of points of view: logical, sociological, epistemological, and finally, theological. Taking into account the trends in philosophy, taking into account the originality of individual statements expressing the subjective opinion of a particular scientist, truth can be defined as an adequate reflection of objective reality by the cognizing subject, during which the cognized object is reproduced as it exists outside and independently of consciousness. Consequently, truth enters into the objective content of human knowledge. But as soon as we are convinced that the process of cognition is not interrupted, then the question arises about the nature of truth.

A delusion is an erroneous opinion of a person about something. Misconceptions, erroneous conclusions, or logical inconsistencies are all delusions. Each person has a large baggage of false ideas and beliefs that he has to carry with him.

Having understood the definition of delusion, I want to know how a person can get rid of them. Everything is very simple, you need to rewrite the wrong information in your head to the correct one. Is it difficult to do this? Very, and sometimes it is simply impossible. A person who has lived most of his life with strong beliefs rarely part with them, even realizing that they are false. Suffice it to recall Copernicus, who was burned for a bold discovery. It was easier for people to admit that a scientist was crazy than to reconsider their view of the world. Delusions are not the best comrades, and you need to get rid of them. But in order to fight the enemy, you need to know him by sight. So let's continue with the issue.

1. Stones cannot fall from the sky, they have nowhere to come from! (Paris Academy of Meteorite Sciences, 1772).

2. $100 million is too much to pay for Microsoft (IBM, 1982).

3. In the future, computers will weigh no more than 1.5 tons (Popular Mechanics, 1949).

4. I traveled this country far and wide, talked with smartest people and I can vouch for you that data processing is only a fad, the fashion for which will last no more than a year (editor, Prentice Hall, 1957).

5. But, what... could be useful in this thing? (a question in a discussion of the creation of a microchip in the Advanced Computing Systems Division of IBM, 1968).

6. No one needs to have a computer in their home (Ken Olson, founder and president of Digital Equipment Corp., 1977).

7. A device such as a telephone has too many shortcomings to be considered as a means of communication. Therefore, I believe that this invention is of no value (from discussions in the Western Union company in 1876).

8. This wireless music box cannot have any commercial value. Who will pay for messages that are not intended for some private person? (Business partners of David Sarnov in response to his proposal to invest in the radio project, 1920).

9. Yeah, who the hell cares what the actors are talking about? (Warner Brothers reaction to the use of sound in motion pictures, 1927).

10. We don't like their sound and, in general, guitar quartets are yesterday (Decca Recording Co., which rejected the recording of The Beatles' album, 1962).

11. Aircraft heavier than air are impossible! (Lord Kelvin - physicist, president of the Royal Scientific Society in 1895).

12. Professor Goddard does not understand the relationship between action and reaction, he does not know that the reaction needs conditions more suitable than a vacuum. The professor appears to be severely lacking in the elementary knowledge taught in high school (New York Times editorial on Robert Goddard's revolutionary rocket work, 1921).

13. Drilling the earth in search of oil? Do you mean that you have to drill the ground in order to find oil? You're out of your mind (response to Edwin Drake's 1859 draft).

14. Airplanes are interesting toys, but they do not represent any military value (Marshal Ferdinand Foch, professor of strategy at the Academy of the General Staff of France).

15. Everything that could be invented has already been invented (Charles Dewell - Commissioner of the American Patent Office, 1899).

16. Louis Pasteur's theory of microbes is a ridiculous fantasy (Pierre Pachet - professor of psychology at the University of Toulouse, 1872).

17. The abdomen, chest and brain will always be closed to the intrusion of a wise and humane surgeon (Sir John Erik Eriksen - British physician, appointed Surgeon General to Queen Victoria, 1873).

18. 640 kilobytes of memory should be enough for everyone (Bill Gates, 1981).

19. I think that in the world market we will find a demand for five computers (Thomas Watson - Director of IBM, 1943).

Video Scientific fallacies - Physicists and lyricists

Recently, the American magazine Live Science compiled a list of the most popular myths related to science and medicine. As it turned out, most of our ideas about the structure of the world and the human body, which are considered an immutable dogma, are not entirely correct or completely incorrect! At least that's what professional scientists think.

1) Nerve cells do not regenerate.

Not true. Of course, at an early age, the division of our brain cells is much more intense, but even at mature years they never stop sharing. As studies show, the growth of neurons continues until the death of a person. Otherwise, we could not assimilate new information and increase our intelligence.

Perhaps this statement is true only for patients multiple sclerosis. This ailment lies precisely in the death of nerve endings, and they are no longer subject to restoration. Although it is possible that medicine will soon come up with a means to reverse this process.

2) Our brain uses only 10 percent of its resources.

Nonsense! As the results of MRI studies have shown, in the process of thinking we use a large part of the cerebral cortex, and the brain works even when we sleep. That is why we see dreams, and sometimes some important thoughts and decisions even come in a dream.

3) Yawning is contagious.

Scientists are inclined to believe that this is true. You probably noticed that if one of those present begins to yawn, then the rest follow his example. According to the researchers, this is due to subconscious reflexes that we have inherited from monkeys.

4) Chicken broth cures colds.

Also true, but only partly. Chicken broth does contain substances that have an anti-inflammatory effect on the body. However, if one broth is used instead of drugs, this is unlikely to stop the disease.

5) If you run in the rain, you won't get so wet.

Mathematicians even made equations for this process and found out that this statement is most likely true. However, if when walking, first of all, the head becomes wet, then when running, it is the body, which means that clothes can become very wet. Decide what's more important to you. It's better to go with an umbrella.

6) Eating a poppy seed bun is like taking a drug.

Partly true. Of course, you will not feel a narcotic effect like euphoria, but the test for opiates may be positive. Especially if you were greedy and ate two rolls instead of one ...

7) A chicken can live without a head for some time.

Oddly enough, it's true. This bird is able to live a couple more minutes after its head is cut off, since it retains the brain stem, which is responsible for numerous reflexes. There is a legend about a chicken that was able to stretch with a severed head for 18 months. Apparently, this is where the expression "brainless chicken" came from: it turns out that chickens don't really need a brain...

8) There is no gravity in space.

This is complete nonsense. Gravity is everywhere, it just decreases as you move away from the Earth. And astronauts in orbit find themselves in weightlessness only because, being on board automatic stations, they fall to Earth in a horizontal plane.

By the way, the assertion that vacuum reigns in space is also false. After all, interstellar space is filled with microparticles, but we can simply not notice them, since the distance between them is too great.

9) The only man-made object that can be seen from space is the Great Wall of China.

Wrong. From low orbit, you can see many objects, even the Egyptian pyramids and the runways of major airports. But to see the Great Wall of China is just quite difficult - for this you need to know its exact location.

10) The change of seasons of the year occurs because the distance from the Earth to the Sun changes.

Complete nonsense! A change in the distance to the Sun occurs when our planet moves in orbit. But this practically does not affect temperature fluctuations. The change of seasons actually depends on the angle of the earth's axis.

Source: Pravda.ru

The process of knowing the world, exploring new horizons and penetrating the very essence of the most complex natural phenomena is impossible without trial and error. Science must be mistaken and wrong, because that's how things work. The whole point is to refute what we think we know well enough. If we can't find evidence to the contrary, then so be it. And if we can, then ahead of us is waiting for a whole new world! Here are 25 examples of the most common misconceptions of the scientific world of past centuries and even years. Perhaps today there is something that you unquestioningly believe in, and tomorrow this stereotype will be included in a new list of errors and hoaxes.

25. The four humors of the human body

Photo: Jakob Suckale / English Wikipedia

Ancient doctors and scientists believed that human body consists of 4 fluids - phlegm, yellow bile, black bile and blood. If the body did not produce a healthy ratio of these vital juices, the person became ill. For the same reason, the bloodletting method of treatment until the end of the 19th century was considered the most in an efficient way bring the balance of fluids back to normal. Then the golden age of microbiology began, and medicine was able to take a different path, saving new lives thanks to scientific breakthroughs.

But why humor? In ancient medical theories, the fundamental human fluids were called humors (an ancient Greek word that translates as humor). It was believed that each type of humor or humor corresponds to a certain temperament. Probably, this is where the ambiguous meaning of the words "bile" and "ulcer" appeared in the Russian language.

24. Miasm Theory

Photo: pixabay

In the science of past centuries, there was a theory that the cause of most diseases is miasma (harmful substances and decay products that get from the soil and sewage directly into the air). Until the advent of extensive research in microbiology in the late 19th century, the miasma version was the most common explanation for almost all ailments, including typhoid fever, malaria and cholera.

In the process of developing this theory, science has generated a number of extremely curious medical solutions and devices. During the Middle Ages, doctors sometimes prescribed bad smell treatments (such as inhalation of intestinal gases) to their patients. Apparently, they believed that if unpleasant odors can cause illness, then they can also overcome it.

23. Earth is the center of the universe

Photo: pixabay

Thanks to Nicolaus Copernicus, today we know that our Earth is not the center of the universe. In the 16th century, the geocentric system of the world, according to which all the stars revolved around our planet, was replaced by the heliocentric and then by the following modern cosmological models of the Universe. And that's not all ... Modern scientists know much more than astronomers of past centuries, and we have the latest technology to look far beyond the horizons of the conceivable. But the more a person learns about space, the more new questions appear!

22. Phlogiston

Photo: pixabay

For the first time this term appeared in the middle of the 17th century, and the German chemist and physician Johann Joachim Becher became its author. The pundit suggested that this element is an ultra-fine matter or fiery substance contained in flammable substances and released from them during combustion. In addition, in the 17th century, people believed that we breathe not in order to receive oxygen, but in order to exhale this very phlogiston from the body and not burn alive.

21 Neanderthals And Homo Sapiens Didn't Mate With Each Other

Photo: Matt Celeskey / flickr

For a long time, geneticists believed that modern people are exclusively descendants of the Homo sapiens species, and Neanderthal DNA has sunk into oblivion. However, in 2010, scientists managed to sequence (determine the sequence of amino acids and nucleotides) the genes of Neanderthals. At the same time, it was discovered that about 4% of people living outside of Africa are partly descendants of those same Neanderthals, and traces of the DNA of this extinct species were found in them. It seems that our ancestors still communicated with Neanderthals much more closely ...

20. Genetic differences between human races

Photo: shutterstock

In fact, there is no genetic difference between the human races. Recent studies already in the 21st century have even shown that there can be much more differences between African peoples than between some Europeans and Africans in general.

19. Pluto is a planet

Photo: wikimedia commons

At first, Pluto was not considered a planet, then it was nevertheless ranked as this type of celestial bodies, calling it the 9th planet. solar system. So it was until 2006, when the International Astronomical Union updated and expanded cosmological terminology, and Pluto was again demoted, but this time to the rank of a dwarf or minor planet at number 134340. A number of scientists continue to insist that this heavenly body- a classic planet, so there is every chance that he will be returned to his former status again. For those who are not in the know, the main difference between dwarf planets and classical ones is the ability of the astronomical object under study to clear its orbit from cosmic debris, dust or planetesimals.

18. Ulcers appear due to stress and anxiety.

Photo: pixabay

Wrong. An ulcer appears as a result of the vital activity of a special bacterium, and the researchers who proved this received the Nobel Prize in 2005. One of the scientists involved in the experiments deliberately ingested these microorganisms to prove their connection with inflammation of the skin and mucous membranes.

17. The earth is flat

Photo: wikimedia commons

For many centuries this statement was considered dogma and common fact. But if you think that those days are over, you are mistaken. For example, the Flat Earth Society still promotes the idea of a flat earth and assures people that all satellite images are fake. Members of this organization deny the generally accepted scientific facts and believe in conspiracy theories. Society is convinced that the Sun, Moon and other stars revolve above the surface of our flat planet, that gravity does not exist, that South Pole neither, but Antarctica is the Earth's ice belt.

16. Phrenology

Photo: pixabay

This pseudoscience says that the inner world, character and sometimes even the fate of a person depend on the physical appearance. Followers of phrenology believe that the most important information about a person's mental properties can be obtained by measuring the parameters of the skull and analyzing its structure.

15. "Indestructible" laws of Newtonian physics

Photo: Varsha Y S, Varsha 2

Since 1900, when Max Planck published his landmark paper “On the theory of the distribution of radiation energy in the normal spectrum” at a meeting of the German Physical Society, quantum mechanics has completely changed our understanding of the world. At the quantum level, there are such processes that are difficult to understand and explain with the help of classical mechanics and the three famous laws of Isaac Newton...

14. California Island

Photo: pixabay

One of the sunniest states in the US, California was once considered a full-fledged island. No wonder there is an expression "California is an island in itself." This metaphorical phrase was once used quite literally. So it was until the end of the 18th century, when, during scientific expeditions, cartographers finally realized that this piece of land is a real continental coast and an indivisible part of North America.

13. Telegony

Photo: pixabay

Telegony is the false science that offspring can inherit the genes of their mother's sexual partners, with whom she entered into an intimate relationship before their father. This teaching was especially popular among the Nazis. They believed that an Aryan woman who had at least one sexual encounter with a non-Aryan man was no longer capable of producing a full-blooded Aryan.

12. Irrational numbers

Photo: pixabay

Pythagoras and his followers were almost religiously obsessed with numbers. One of their key doctrines was that all existing numbers can be expressed as a ratio of integers. That is why when the ancient Greek philosopher and mathematician Hippas noticed that the square root of 2 was irrational, this plunged the Pythagoreans into. Moreover, there is a version that pundits were so much amazed and offended that they even drowned Hippasus in the sea.

11 Hollow Earth Theory

Photo: pixabay

If you've ever read Jules Verne's sci-fi novel Journey to the Center of the Earth, or even watched a movie based on it, you already know what this theory is all about. Until almost the end of the 19th century, some scientists still believed that our planet was hollow and subject to internal exploration. These scientists believed that the size of the void is not much smaller than the size of the Earth itself. The most daring fantasies said that inside our planet there is a second atmospheric layer, internal water bodies, their own life forms living on the inner surface of the planet, and in the center of this sphere a small star hovers in airless space.

10 Raising Lambs

Photo: pixabay

The ancient Greeks were a people who were ahead of their time and other nations in many ways. They practiced the sciences, made mathematical discoveries and built architectural masterpieces. But with all this, the Greeks believed that lambs could be raised on trees. This crazy theory was inspired by the stories of Indian pilgrims and merchants, who recalled trees on which “wool grew”. The belief that sheep and rams could be raised like plants continued well into the 17th century.

9. Time is constant

Photo: pixabay

So it was thought before the discoveries of Albert Einstein. When he proved that only light was permanent, the public did not immediately believe it and even considered him a madman for a while. Today, however, NASA pilots have to set their watches in a special way, because time flows differently depending on the distance at which the spacecraft are from the source of gravity, and on the speed of movement. The difference is felt even on Earth. For example, at sea level, the clock ticks faster than on the roof of the famous Empire State Building (Empire State Building, 443 meters).

8. The more complex organisms, the more genes

Photo: pixabay

Previously, scientists thought that humans had about 100,000 genes. The most amazing discovery made during the research of the Human Genome Project (Human Genome Project, HGP, an international research project) was that you and I have only about 20,000 genes. It will sound especially incredible that over 30,000 genes have been found in some tiny mosses!

7 Water Is Only Found On Earth

Photo: pixabay

This thesis also turned out to be a fallacy. More recently, the NASA space agency reported that Europa, the natural satellite of Jupiter, has more reserves than our entire planet.

6 Monkeys Are The Smartest Animals On Earth, Except Humans

Photo: pixabay

For a long time, it was generally accepted in the scientific community that since primates (monkeys) are mammals closest to humans in terms of body structure and origin, they are also incredibly smart. However, recent studies have shown that there are birds in nature that are smarter than even the smartest monkeys. Do not underestimate the birds ...

5. The death of the ancient Egyptian pharaoh Tutankhamun

Photo: t-bet / flickr

In 2006, archaeologists unearthed evidence that Tutankhamun died due to an accident with his chariot. However, already in 2014, historians reported that the real cause of his death was the consequences of incest, hereditary diseases characteristic of incest.

4 Neanderthals Were Stupid

Photo: AquilaGib

It used to be thought that Neanderthals died out because Homo sapiens were smarter. New evidence contradicts this theory. According to new data from researchers, Neanderthals could be even smarter than our ancestors. But why then did they disappear from the face of the Earth? There is still no answer to this question...

The most optimistic version says that the Neanderthals did not actually die out, but simply disappeared into the tribes of Homo sapiens, integrated into our society and assimilated with our ancestors, as evidenced by the traces of their DNA in our blood.

3. The rate of expansion of the universe

Photo: pixabay

According to the most famous cosmological model of the 20th century, due to gravity, the expansion of our universe is gradually slowing down. However, in the 1990s, new data showed that the expansion of the universe was, in fact, accelerating.

2 Dinosaurs Had Normal Skin

Photo: pixabay

Everything we know about the appearance of dinosaurs is based partly on conjecture, partly on the analysis of their descendants, and in some cases on fossilized prints. Previously, there was a theory that the body of these extinct animals was covered with skin or scales, but now the version of feathered dinosaurs is becoming increasingly popular in the scientific community.

1. Alchemy

Photo: pixabay

Sir Isaac Newton was a great scientist and made a huge contribution to physics. But this did not stop him from believing in alchemy, which is now considered a pseudoscience based on myths. Until the end of his days, Newton believed that one day he would be able to turn ordinary metal into gold. Do not rush to laugh, because it is thanks to alchemy that we have modern chemistry.

In science, as it is presented in school, there are no second places. If the theory is correct, then its closest competitor simply leaves the arena. This is how the brightest hypotheses disappear - where there are more than enough "units of meaning".

The authors of such erroneous ideas are closer to Nobel laureates than to losers who compose their own laws of the universe at their leisure, after a week of work in some ball-bearing research institute. All the theories disproved were as scientific as was possible at the time of their appearance. Therefore, our list does not include either torsion fields or intellectual water that remembers compliments and prayers.

However, delusion has its advantages. If the theory is correct, then it will have to acquire refinements until it changes beyond recognition: the story of evolution in a modern textbook has little in common with what Darwin wrote. On the other hand, an erroneous concept is remembered exactly as it was first formulated, and remains a monument to the author himself, the author's style, and, ultimately, the era.

Particle

Fast imaginary

Some particles move from the future to the past

Tachyons are particles that break all the rules at once: they have imaginary mass and speed is always greater than light. And tachyons move back in time.

The theorist Gerald Feinberg introduced them in 1967 - well aware, in general, of what is possible for an ordinary particle and what is impossible. Therefore, Feinberg declared tachyons a new class of particles, and all the traditional ones he attributed to tardions (that is, “retarded”: they do not overtake light) and luxons (this is a photon, a quantum of light, and a graviton, a quantum of gravitation: only they move at light speed).

Roughly speaking, tachyons are a bold generalization of the idea of antimatter. Antiparticles are the opposite of particles only in part: it is enough for just one characteristic - the charge - to change sign, and now instead of matter we have antimatter. And the properties of tachyons are all the properties of habitual matter inside out. Feinberg's like-minded people never managed to agree on how tachyons interact with tardyons - it was not excluded that there was no way at all. In the latter case, paradoxes of causality disappear: neither the impact from the future on the past, nor the transmission of information faster than light, which Einstein's theory forbids, will happen. There was no place for tachyons as a group in the Standard Model. Nevertheless, some physicists assumed that the Higgs boson, the last undiscovered particle from there, would be the first tachyon to be discovered by people.

What else are the authors famous for? The very idea of tachyons (without calculations) belongs to Arnold Sommerfeld, a classic of quantum physics. He, for example, introduced the fine structure constant - the number?, which determines the possibility of life in the Universe.

Another author, Feinberg, is famous for predicting the existence different types neutrinos (by the way, long before tachyons - he was then only 25 years old). Indeed, three of their varieties are now known. The particles are considered so important that the most cumbersome observatories in the world are built to hunt them. Feinberg is also known as a popularizer of cryonics - freezing the dead in order to revive them later.

As denied. Tachyons have not left physics for good. It's just that in modern models they are credited with a vanishingly short lifetime. Therefore, the appearance of "stable" tachyons in any theory is considered a sign that it will have to be revised. In the four decades that have passed since the publication of Feinberg's article, no signs of tachyons, either in space or inside accelerators, have been found.

If the hypothesis were true, it would be possible to send letters to our great-great-grandfathers.

Electrons

roll cube

Atoms are shaped like cubes

Hypothesis. Atoms are the simplest building blocks of matter. That's how we were taught in school. With that in mind, imagining them as cubes is easy. Electrons are placed at the corners of such a cube in order to connect with neighboring atoms - to form chemical bonds.

This theory became really popular in the early 1920s - thanks to amendments and active advertising from Irving Langmuir, the future Nobel laureate in chemistry. By that time, chemical reasoning about the atom had little in common with physics. We can say that physicists and chemists called two different things in one word: in the first, the atom was well able to break up into parts, in the second, to combine with their own kind.

With the help of cubes, for the first time, they clearly explained where the valence comes from and why it is often equal to two, three or four and never goes beyond the mark of eight. "Eights", or octets from school textbooks, is the number of electrons to which an atom seeks to complete its shell. And the cube is the same octet transferred from paper to three-dimensional space.

What else are the authors famous for? The Nobel Prize went to Langmuir with the wording "for discoveries and research in the chemistry of surfaces." At the level of individual molecules, he explained how a gas mask works, how cloth gets dirty, and how a particle of platinum explodes a cylinder of hydrogen - or, more precisely, he developed the theory of adsorption from which all these phenomena follow. He also invented the electric light bulb in its present form. Langmuir was the first to suggest filling it with an inert gas so that the tungsten filament does not burn out in a matter of days.

Gilbert Lewis, who put forward his idea back in 1902, was nominated for the Nobel Prize several times. Chemists still use his concept of "covalent bond", and physicists - the Lewis word "photon".

As denied. All previous models of the atom, both physical and chemical, lost their meaning with the advent of quantum mechanics in the mid-1920s. The Schrödinger equation describes an atom as an object that, in the strict sense, has neither shape nor boundaries: electrons are “smeared” all over space at once, and there is a non-zero (albeit very small) chance to find them arbitrarily far from the nucleus.

If the hypothesis were true All chemists would be taught to play Lego on the subject of "cubic chemistry".

atoms

Zero number

There is an ultralight element on the Sun that is not on Earth

Hypothesis. Koroniy, the most light chemical element found bypassing chemical experiments: in the solar corona, along one spectral line. To fit it into the periodic table, all the other cells had to be moved down. According to estimates, a single atom of this element was supposed to be even lighter than a hydrogen atom, that is, in the end, it claimed the zero cell of the table.

Shortly before coronium, helium, the element following hydrogen, was discovered in this way. "Helium" is translated as "solar". It was incredibly difficult to find it on Earth, because it is not only rare, but also inert (does not enter into chemical reactions). Mendeleev's periodic law predicted coronium to have similar properties, thus leaving chemists with almost no chance of involving it in any reactions.

Mendeleev himself not only recognized the zero element, but even invented a neighbor for it in the "zero" group: it is practically weightless Newtonium. From it, according to Mendeleev, the world ether, which fills all space, consists.

What else are the authors famous for? Astronomers Charles Young and William Harkness, during an eclipse of 1869, made the discovery independently of each other, but interpreted it together. Young, in addition to discovering the imaginary element, earned a scientific reputation by measuring the speed at which the Sun rotates from spectra and predicting the unknown layer of its corona. Harkness was less interested in theory - he invented several astronomical instruments, headed the US Naval Observatory and was promoted to rear admiral for this.

As denied. The element was exposed only in 1939, 70 years after the discovery. As followed from quantum calculations, the green "coronium line" in the spectrum actually belongs to superexcited iron, an atom without 13 electrons - this can only occur in extreme conditions: on Earth it is very difficult to tear off at least 4 electrons from an atom. From this it becomes clear why the "line of coronium" did not catch the eye of anyone before.

If the hypothesis were correct Instead of a hydrogen bomb, we would be frightened with a corona.

Substance

Other water

A drop of water polymer will destroy the oceans

Hypothesis. Water can be turned into a polymer - a substance where individual molecules become links in large chains. In this case, the properties of water change dramatically, although the formal composition - two hydrogen atoms for each oxygen atom - remains the same.

The hypothesis grew out of a single experience with an inexplicable result. If you drive water vapor into a narrow quartz capillary, condense it there and repeat the procedure several times, you will get a completely different liquid. This derivative of water will boil at 150 °C and freeze at minus 40, its density will increase by 10-20%, and its viscosity will increase many times over. In the early 1960s, just during the polymer boom, this was discovered by an unknown Kostroma chemist Nikolai Fedyakin. Then his experiment was successfully repeated at the Moscow Institute of Physical Chemistry, and after that in several Western laboratories.

They did not have time to come up with serious applications of "polywater", but they managed to understand why it is harmful. Some physicists blamed it on problems with transatlantic cables at the bottom of the ocean. Others predicted a global catastrophe: they said that, once in the world's oceans, "polywater" could turn all the planet's water into a polymer. The plot about ice-9 at Vonnegut is from here.

What else are the authors famous for? Almost nothing is known about Nikolai Fedyakin. At Western conferences, the opening was presented by Boris Deryagin, by that time a corresponding member of the USSR Academy of Sciences. Deryagin was engaged in colloid chemistry, that is, the behavior of a highly crushed substance (now it is more often called nanotechnology). He also published a classic work on how fog dissolves, and was one of the first to synthesize artificial diamonds.

As denied. Biophysicist Dennis Russo from Bell Labs repeated Fedyakin's experiment, only replacing pure water with his saliva - and got the same result. Most likely, Fedyakin's capillary was contaminated: a few biomolecules are enough to spoil the entire sample. They change water in the same way that a small amount of gelatin turns liquid into jelly.

If the hypothesis were correct, the oceans, rivers and all living things would turn into jelly.

Cell

Protein genes

DNA does not transmit hereditary information, but protein

Hypothesis. Hereditary traits are encoded in giant polymer molecules - proteins. Chromosomes are made up of these molecules, and DNA is just an additive. Proteins can copy themselves, multiply and be transmitted from cell to cell, from generation to generation. Together with them, all the signs of the body are transmitted.

In the first decades of the last century, most scientists were inclined to believe that genes are proteins. No one believed that DNA could encode hereditary information: the composition of the molecule seemed too simple for such challenging task. The idea came from the 19th century. The role of chromosomes in heredity has not yet been clearly established, and the classic of genetics Edmund Beecher Wilson stated in his book that genes are made up of proteins. In the next edition, however, he already said that the most important thing in heredity is nucleic acids.

The most detailed hypothesis was formulated by the Russian biologist Nikolai Koltsov. In 1927, he published his idea of a double-stranded protein - the basis of chromosomes. On proteins, as on a matrix, their exact copies are assembled: small molecules from the solution are first lined up along the parent molecule, and then chemically crosslinked - thus genes are inherited.

What else is the author famous for? Koltsov was the first to show that the cell has a protein "skeleton" and did several major genetic studies before launching the campaign against the "Weismannist Morganists" in 1930. The very idea of copying the molecules of heredity turned out to be correct, only later it turned out that the DNA molecule is copied, not the protein.

As denied. In 1944, microbiologist Oswald Avery and his colleagues at the Rockefeller Institute in New York transferred DNA from one bacterium to another and, along with the DNA, passed on hereditary properties. Avery himself then wrote that this was completely unexpected for him, since everyone assumed that protein molecules were carriers of genes.

If the hypothesis were true, the secret of the origin of life would already be revealed.

Brain

Scotophobin

For every memory there is a separate molecule

Hypothesis. A rat can be taught someone else's experience by feeding it a trained brain. When the brain learns, its cells produce special substances that are stored for a very long time. For every memory there is a different kind of molecule.

In the 1960s, several groups of neurophysiologists were simultaneously engaged in "memory transfer". The first experiments were conducted by James McConnell from Ann Arbor (Michigan): he trained flatworms - planarians - to respond to light. The worms swam in a small pool, where they were shocked and the lights turned on at the same time. From the electric discharge, the muscles of the worms contracted, and then they began to contract even without current, just with a flash of light. McConnell cut the "trained" planarians into pieces and fed them to the "untrained." According to the results, published in reputable scientific journals, it turned out that untrained worms also reacted to light.

These experiments were checked in several laboratories, but could not be confirmed. Then it turned out that planarians cannot be taught to react to light at all. And even later, McConnell said that he played everyone.

Although the prank was uncovered, "memory transfer" research continued in other labs. The hypothesis seemed correct, it was believed that just an unsuccessful object was chosen for the experiments.

Georges Ungar of Baylor College of Medicine in Texas received the most striking results. Ungar experimented on rats. He placed the animals in cages where one corner was darkened. If a rat ran into the dark, it received an electric shock. When the animal was trained to avoid a dark corner, it was slaughtered, and the extract from the brain was injected into untrained mice. According to Ungar, these rodents acquired a "fear of the dark." In 1972, an article appeared in the journal Nature, where Ungar and colleagues reported on the discovery of the first "memory protein", called scotophobin. It was this protein that transferred the fear of the dark from rats to mice. Ungar formulated the thesis: "One peptide - one act of behavior."

What else is the author famous for? Georges Ungar - famous pharmacist, worked on the creation antihistamines(substances that prevent allergies), for the development of which in 1957 his colleagues were awarded the Nobel Prize.

As denied. As soon as it was discovered in the 1970s that long-term memory is stable contacts between cells, the need for Ungar's theory disappeared. However, doubts appeared even earlier: scotophobin was tested in several laboratories, and the results were rarely reproduced. And then it turned out that this substance is very similar to one of the general regulators of the nervous system.

If the hypothesis were correct, it would be possible to give memories to each other and teach through injections.

Earth

Puff up and puff up

Our planet is freezing and shrinking

Hypothesis. The conjecture that we live on a planet of variable sizes arose in the middle of the 19th century and remained popular for almost 50 years. After all, an expanding (or contracting) world is not necessarily about the entire Universe at once. Enough of a single Earth.

To restore the logic of the author, James Dwight Dana, it is necessary to imagine the Earth in a section, without going into details: a hot filling is hidden under a thin surface. Hot bodies tend to cool down and shrink. Therefore, from time to time, Dana's guess is referred to as the theory of global cooling. The consequences of global warming look more modest against its background.

The first, Dana argued, suffers the earth's crust. From compression, folds and breaks appear on it, evidence of this is mountain ranges. Meanwhile, giant fragments of the surface float, sink, and break off each other's edges.

If we assume that the planet was born molten, then over the next 100 million years, it lost hundreds of kilometers in girth. And, of course, continues to decrease in size, even if not so fast.

What else is the author famous for? The American James Dwight Dana, a mineralogist and zoologist, is often compared to Darwin: both went on a long-term Pacific expedition, both returned with new version world order. By the way, Dana took up the history of the planet to explain the origin of species. The fact that the same reptiles live in South America and Africa was explained by Dana by the existing land route between the continents, which, due to the compression of the Earth, went under water.

As denied. The geologists did not have a clear rebuttal. In the 1910s, the hypothesis was simply replaced by a more plausible (but incorrect in details) theory about the slow horizontal movement of the continents. The real counterargument came from physics when the decay of atomic nuclei was discovered. It turned out that hot layers do not have to cool down if radioisotopes are hidden in them: they heat up the planet and prevent it from shrinking.

If the hypothesis were correct After some time, the continents would be covered with ice and burst.

planets

Body X

A giant planet is hidden behind the orbit of Pluto

Hypothesis."Planet X" also revolves around the Sun and manifests itself by bending the orbits of other bodies - from planets to comets. It is almost impossible to see it from Earth through a telescope. Astronomers seriously believed in "extra" planets back in the century before last after the discovery of Neptune, the existence of which was predicted in advance by mathematicians. If the same Neptune - the last visible giant - were at least 10 times further away, it would already seem 10 thousand times dimmer. Such a faint object in the sky should not be confused with a small asteroid or comet, of which there are thousands.

In 1930, when the hypothesis of the existence of "planet X" was in vogue, its search was interrupted by the discovery of Pluto - he did not aim for giants, but was also considered a planet capable of influencing others. 48 years later, the size of Pluto was finally carefully calculated and came to the conclusion that its mass is not enough to shift alien orbits. So "planet X" again became in demand. And in 2006, Pluto was completely excluded from the planets, and there were eight of them, as at the very beginning of the search for "X".

What else is the author famous for? The hunt for a new planet was justified by Percival Lowell, a Boston entrepreneur known for his books on Japanese culture. In 1894, Lowell built an observatory at his own expense and began searching. Lowell was even buried in a mausoleum shaped like an observatory tower, and the astronomical symbol for the planet Pluto plays on his initials, P.L.

As denied. The Voyager-2 probe in the early 90s proved that astronomers were simply looking in the wrong place. According to his observations, the anomaly leading the planets astray was inside Neptune, the mass of which was overestimated at one time. Due to the lack of weight, he attracted other planets weaker than he could, and he himself moved along the "wrong" orbit. That is, no third planet is needed to explain the effect.

If the hypothesis were correct In 2060, an apparatus would fly there with a message from Brezhnev or Nixon.

solar system

Anticomets

The solar system is filled with antimatter

Hypothesis. Comets and possibly some meteorites are composed of antimatter. This explains why everyone has seen flashes of space debris entering the atmosphere, but the collected extraterrestrial material is a rarity. In any contact with ordinary atoms, antimatter is known to annihilate with a huge release of energy. Therefore, even a grain of antimatter disappearing with an explosion is enough for a flash in the sky.

The authorship of the idea belongs to the Leningrad nuclear physicists. Academician Boris Konstantinov and his staff in 1965 supported Nobel laureate Willard Libby: He claimed that the antimatter was the Tunguska meteorite, of which not a single fragment remained.

What else is the author famous for? Boris Konstantinov, vice-president of the USSR Academy of Sciences, was mainly engaged in nuclear physics and acoustics. If the first is in contact with astronomy, then the second is very conditional. Konstantinov's doctoral dissertation was entitled "The Theory of Woodwind Instruments".

As denied. The work on this topic was classified: it was believed that, according to its results, antimatter could somehow be extracted from space in “weapon-grade” quantities. Because of this, physicists did not consult astronomers for several years. The calculation that refutes the hypothesis belongs to the astrophysicist Shklovsky: he simply calculated the total annihilation energy of meteorite matter in the air for a year - and it turned out to be equal to hundreds of hydrogen bombs.

If the hypothesis were correct, a ball-sized meteorite would destroy our planet.

Universe

Space forever

The big bang never happened

Hypothesis. Instead of inflating from one point for the past 14 billion years, the universe has always existed in its current form. For an honest scientist, there is nothing seditious in such an idea. In any case, one should not evade the question of what happened before the Big Bang - physicists obviously have nowhere to look for an answer to it. And so - one less unknown, plus an optimistic forecast: if the cosmos was not born, then, probably, it will not die.

The hypothesis appeared in the late 1940s and immediately won supporters among astronomers. The exploded universe model currently in use is 20 years older. But then it was considered an obscure exotic, interesting only to theoretical physicists. The only indisputable fact was that galaxies scatter in all directions - this was found out by Edwin Hubble in 1929. But Hubble's conclusion that once upon a time they all "escaped" from one point was confusing.

Fred Hoyle, Herman Bondy and Thomas Gold found a way out of the difficulty. If galaxies move away from each other, then the gaps between them are filled with new matter, born out of nowhere. It takes just nothing - a hydrogen atom per cubic meter of emptiness once every billion years. This would be enough to keep the density of the cosmos unchanged. Over time, atoms would form gas clouds, and from them - stars with everything else.

What else are the authors famous for? The British astronomer Fred Hoyle, the main opponent of the Big Bang theory, we owe the very term "Big Bang". Hoyle first said it live on the BBC in 1949, apparently wanting to offend his opponents.

However, he received the right to conduct a series of radio programs about the Universe for other merits, which by the end of the 40s had already accumulated a lot. Later, in 1957, he figured out where carbon and other heavy atoms came from in space - for this article, his co-author William Fowler would later be awarded the Nobel Prize. In his free time from physics, Hoyle managed to write scripts for the British science fiction series about the cybermonster Andromeda, which threatens all of humanity.

Another author of the hypothesis of an unchanging Universe, the mathematician Herman Bondy, was the first to describe exactly how black holes absorb matter: the astronomical discovery was an unexpected appendage to a closed study about military radars. Bondy has long been the chief theoretician of the British Ministry of Defense, and the London authorities owe him a scheme of dams to protect the city's underground from the floods of the Thames.

The third co-author, Thomas Gold, was made famous by pulsars - cosmic radio beacons that send out strictly repeating signals. When the discoverers mistook them for alien messages in 1967 and classified the study, it was Gold who identified neutron stars in pulsars, the superdense remnants of exploding supernovae. The Nobel Prize, however, went to observers, not theorists.

As denied. The moment of final clarity is a discovery made in 1965 by radio physicists Penzias and Wilson. When testing a radio antenna, they accidentally recorded the relic radiation coming from all sides of the universe at once - a kind of echo of the Big Bang. The age of the radiation is 13.7 billion years, which was in good agreement with the Big Bang and in no way with stationary space.

The second counterargument was quasars - objects with gigantic luminosity on the edge of the visible universe. At a distance closer to us, they are not, so we see all quasars as they were 10 or more billion years ago. And if the early universe was so different from the current one, then talk about cosmic immutability loses its meaning.

If the hypothesis were true Stars would be born from the void.

Illustrations: Maria Sosnina

Science is designed to penetrate into the essence of natural phenomena, to present people with a correct picture of the world. And most modern people are accustomed to trusting official science, considering generally accepted scientific theories as common truths. In fact, as history shows, the development of science to this day is more a path of trial and error than a direct path to the truth. This post contains examples of common misconceptions and errors in science.

1. Fallacies of Aristotle

2. The search for the philosopher's stone

Obsessed with the idea of finding the philosopher's stone, alchemists conducted many experiments, studied all the possible substances that came to hand. The Philosopher's Stone, of course, was never discovered, but the works of the alchemists were not in vain - they formed the basis of modern chemistry.

3. Theory of four liquids

4. Theory of spontaneous generation

For a long time, scientists and philosophers were convinced that living things can spontaneously arise from non-living things. Of course, they knew how animals and plants reproduced, but they were sure that small organisms - insects, worms, mice, fish, etc. - could spontaneously arise from damp soil, garbage and dirt. The writings of medieval scholars contain many examples of spontaneous generation of living beings.

5. Phlogiston theory

6. Theory of caloric

In the 18th and 19th centuries, the dominant theory by which physicists explained thermal phenomena was the theory of caloric. It was assumed that in all bodies there is caloric - a kind of weightless substance, the amount of which determines the degree of heating of the body, and upon contact, caloric can pass from one body to another. Despite the fact that a number of scientists doubted the theory of caloric and expressed the correct opinion that heat is due to the movement of particles that make up the body, most of these arguments were not taken into account. A whole branch of physics, thermodynamics, has grown out of the theory of caloric. It was only at the end of the 19th century that experiments clearly showed that the theory of caloric was erroneous, and the nature of heat was really connected with the movement of the particles that make up the body - molecules and atoms.

Most likely, in the near future, many of the modern scientific theories will be recognized as erroneous and replaced, but it is still too early for us to judge this.