Top 10 Most Famous Scientific Theories That Turned out to be Wrong

Top 10 Most Famous Scientific Theories That Turned out to be Wrong

One of the best aspects of science has always been its readiness to admit when it got something wrong. Theories are constantly being refigured, and new research frequently renders old ideas outdated or incomplete. But this hasn't stopped some discoveries from being hailed as important, game-changing accomplishments a bit prematurely. Even in a field as rigorous and detail-oriented as science, theories get busted, mistakes are made, and hoaxes are perpetrated. The following are ten of the most groundbreaking of these scientific discoveries that turned out to be resting on some questionable data. It is worth noting that most of these concepts are not necessarily "wrong" in the traditional sense; rather, they have been replaced by other theories that are more complete and reliable.

Coming up:

10. The Discovery of Vulcan
9. Spontaneous Generation
8. The Expanding Earth
7. Phlogiston Theory
6. The Martian Canals
5. Luminiferous Aether
4. The Blank Slate Theory
3. Phrenology
2. Einstein's Static Universe
1. Fleischmann and Pons's Cold Fusion

Source/Other reading:

[valseedian]

This is not a proper name for this video. These are not theories. these are hypothesis. The difference between a theory and a hypothesis is preponderance of evidence.

[feraudyh]

Congratulations, this was a high quality video.
I'd jut like to say that it's a good thing that one can propose ideas that can be shown wrong. As someone said "He who does not lose his mind has no mind to lose".

[richieramirez]

Very interesting theoretical cases, keep up the good work :)

[marigeobrien]

Let's not forget that there are still some theories out there that, while universally accepted and well established, are nevertheless wrong.  

[kentandreas]

Videos like this one is the reason why people say "It's just a theory"... Interesting video and all, but can you get your definitions of scientific theory and hypothesis correct? Remember that it is an extreme difference between the way people did "science" 500-2000 years ago and how the scientific method works today. And that means that the scientific theories we have today probably won't be proven wrong, only slightly adjusted at most. Sorry for blabbering on about stuff that the video is not about, but it needed to be said. I'll fly away now.

[fandju]

*A kid in Africa could've eaten those Scientific Theories*

[joshuaglover]

Popcorn can be added to that list.


















(grabs evolution)

[erictaylor]

12:50 To get two atoms of anything to fuse you have to overcome the repulsion of their respective electrons. This repulsion is very very strong and is all by itself responsible for the illusion that "solid" mater IS solid at all. In reality most matter in the universe and ALL matter you would see outside a neutron star is mostly empty space.
To give the atoms enough energy they need to move very fast which, by definition is high temperature. If our understanding of physics is even close to correct (and it really does seem to be correct or at least close enough to correct) then cold fusion is completely impossible.

[dredoc]

Theories?. Many of which precede the scientific method.. Maybe Hypotheses

[deezynar]

I was worried they found out the earth is not hollow.  I'm glad I can keep believing it is.  After all, that's where the alien base is located.

[haros]

You can't just ignore determenism and call it a video

[Double-Negative]

My grandfather is a physicist and once received an offer for cold fusion. The only problem was that according to the theory being presented, everything in the universe would be water.

[respectableaf]

Needs a picture of 17th century philosopher John Locke for the video, goes to google images and take one of the character by the same name from the TV show Lost. Genious!

[rkreike]

Q: If there is a redshift of light in the universe because of distance,
then galaxies that move away with constant velocity seem to move away with acceleration.
If so, the bigbang-theory is possibly wrong?

[DeepFriedwater]

this is for all those people that say science is never wrong

[tonyfello]

Thanks for this. I was just laying here randomly pondering scientific big deals that later turned out to be wrong. Figured there had to be videos

[dadoctah]

I was disappointed that you didn't include Bode's Law of planetary distances.  The idea was that if you divide the distance from the earth to the sun by ten, planets occur at distances given by the series 4, 7, 10, 16, 28, 52, 100, etc (that's 4 plus the series 0, 3, 6, 12, 24, 48, 96, etc, where every element except the first is doubled to get the next).  It fits really well for the planets known at the time the "law" was announced (in 1764), except for a gap between Mars and Jupiter.  The largest asteroid Ceres was later found to match this gap (leading to an image of the asteroids as a planet that exploded long ago), and when Uranus was discovered it matched the formula too.

Neptune kind of messed things up when it was found.  Bode's Law predicted it being much further out than it is, and in fact Pluto is closer to the distance that the formula predicts for Neptune.

[SuperJoshuaAguilar]

I'm gunna be honest... I cam just for the comment section... :) Got my hotdogs and spare time!

[Linnein]

What no one talked about with cold fusion is that when the scientists were looking for positive results in their outlook the results were positive, when there were doubters the results did not turn out. Which means we are the creators, we create our own reality. If you are looking for something you will find it. That is why there is no end to the universe because as long as you look and seek you shall find.

[williamdwyer]

So the aether has been abolished. Now we have the "fabric of space-time." But, how is that different than the aether?