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10 Scientific Blunders that Science Onced Believed, like Cheese Gives Birth to Mice
Image of scientist via Shutterstock
Originally Posted on Epoch Times
The history of science teaches us to question what we think we know.
Some scientists who made great discoveries in history were ridiculed and dismissed by the scientific community at the time.
Some scientists who were way off the mark were celebrated; their theories were held as facts for decades or even centuries.
1. Doctors Should Wash Their Hands
Image of doctor washing hands via Shutterstock
It seems obvious now, but Ignaz Semmelweis had a tough time convincing scientists and doctors 150 years ago that disease could be spread if doctors’ hands and tools were not cleaned.
He was ridiculed and rejected by the majority of his colleagues and superiors at the University of Vienna. He moved to Budapest and worked at a hospital there, slashing mortality rates to a record low by keeping things clean.
Harvard MD John Long Wilson writes of Semmelweis’s rejection: “His doctrine was opposed by powerful members of the academic hierarchy. … The damning evidence that they were themselves the remorseless messengers of death was a scarcely veiled threat to their pride and eminence.”
2. Cheese Gives Birth to Mice
Image of mouse with cheese via Shutterstock
It was widely held until the 17th century that inanimate objects could produce living beings. The Encyclopedia Britannica gives an example: cheese and bread left in a dark corner were thought to produce mice—not attract mice, produce mice.
Similarly, decaying meat was thought to produce maggots.
Francesco Redi showed in the 17th century that meat does not produce maggots (flies lay eggs on the meat, producing maggots), by sealing some meat in a jar and leaving some exposed. The meat in the jar did not form maggots.
3. Tobacco Will Cure Almost Any Ailment
Image of tobacco pipe via Shutterstock
Children were told to smoke tobacco in 1665 during the London plague, according to the U.S. National Institutes of Health. During the 16th century, tobacco was widely prescribed in Europe as a cure for many illnesses, including cancer.
4. Germs Kill People
Many scientists could not accept that tiny little germs could cause diseases and kill people. Louis Pasteur was initially ridiculed for his theories about microbes. He proved they could be killed with heat, preventing disease.
He also showed that microbes are involved in the souring of wine and milk. The term “pasteurized milk” is named for him.
5. Fritz Zwicky Ridiculed by Colleagues ‘Missing 99 Percent of the Universe’
Fritz Zwicky (Wikimedia Commons)
Fritz Zwicky developed the theory of dark matter in the 1930s. He was met with great skepticism and largely ignored for more than 40 years.
His descendants wrote a letter to Caltech’s journal of Engineering & Science in 2010, describing the reaction of the scientific community to Zwicky’s theory: “My grandfather identified an extravaganza of precedent-setting observations that were not understood by many benighted ignoramus of his time.
“Therefore, he no doubt invoked great animosity by telling his colleagues that they were missing 99 percent of the universe, and that they were only looking at the dust bunnies in front of the door.
“No conductor wants to be told he has lost his caboose.”
Click here to see the rest of the list
Apollo Belenus is a Paranormal author for Before its News,
Follow on Twitter: @B4INparanormal and Facebook
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