Major theories that have been "overthrown"

[Imperialism Inc.]

Can anyone name a few.

The first thing that came to my head was Einstein vs Newton but that didn't overturn anything it just kind of added some detail. I suppose this is debatable though.

Any others?

[evermind]

1. phlogiston

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Phlogiston

[DBoon]

18. caloric and the "ether" theory of electromagetic propagation

caloric was replaced with thermodynamics

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Caloric_theory

Ether was disproved by the Michaelson/Morley experiment, and replaced by special relativity

[Canuckistanian]

34. Michelson-Morley Experiment

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Michelson-Morley_experiment

The Michelson-Morley experiment, one of the most important and famous experiments in the history of physics, was performed in 1887 by Albert Michelson and Edward Morley at what is now Case Western Reserve University, and is considered by some to be the first strong evidence against the theory of a luminiferous aether.

[SteppingRazor]

37. Phrenology's a pretty classic example

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Phrenology

[FSogol]

2. Abiogensis? Spontaneous Generation, Cold Fusion, the 4 Humors?

;-)

[unpossibles]

4. Intelligent Design

After all, the proponents of it seem to be living proof that there is no intelligence in our design.

just kidding - couldn't resist.

[FSogol]

7. I thought of that, but he said, "Scientific"

;-)

[mephie00]

45. Well then...

If we are going to consider ID an overthrown "theory" then I suppose we can also add aquatic ape "theory" in there too.

[godless and proud]

52. Unwashed

Trust me, after facing off with IDers and creationists for years, we are dealing with a most ineducable assemblage of the great unwashed.

[Imperialism Inc.]

16. When was abiogenesis overthrown?

Or were you just kidding?

[Orrex]

26. I suspect that the OP meant "spontaneou s generation"

Mice from old shirts, and that kind of thing.

[FSogol]

30. Yup, Abiogenesis is the original name for Spontaneous Generation

If you leave a piece of meat lying around, it'll start turning into maggots and flies. Or if you throw an old shirt into a pile of hay in your barn, it'll start turning into mice. See mice everywhere! It was still widely believed into the 19th Century.

[Canuckistanian]

35. Reminds me of a story (groan)

When I was in high school I remember our two science teachers talking about a new heavy element that had just been discovered.

Our chemistry teacher asked the physics teacher "How many elements are there in total now?" The physics teacher replied "I thought there were only four - Earth, Air, Fire, and Water"

I was the only one of the students in the class to laugh.

[htuttle]

3. Lamarckian evolution (aka, the case of the Midwife Toad)

But that wasn't really a 'major' theory.

The theory of Spontaneous Generation held on for a very long time until the late 1800's.

Most of Aristotles theories about everything have been overturned (you know, when you really read Aristotle, he was kind of an arrogant bastard...).

Those are a couple. Most of them were based on bad science (ie., faulty experiments) anyway...

[Johonny]

31. Lamarckian evolution

wasn't overthrown. It happens to be the mechanism by which most human culture changes.

[htuttle]

32. Human cultures, yes -- that's a good point

But genes & chromasomes, no.

[TheMadMonk]

56. Genes & Cromosomes, no. Expression thereof yes.

Recent studies have determined that certain environmental factors (particularly stressors) can casues long term, inheritable changes to the way some genes are expressed.

Whilst the actual sequence of bases in the DNA doesn't change, the way in which it is read/interpreted can change, and that change can persist into subsequent generations.

IIRC this effect was first noticed in the grandchildrem of Dutch women wh gave birth during and immediately after WWII. Whilst it is no surprise that that the first generation of babies were low birthweight due to the poor/restricted wartime diet of their mothers, it was a surprise to discover that their children were also low birthweight when compared to the norm despite a return to a normal diet.

[mephie00]

48. Lemarkian, you must mean the Meme Machine ;-)

[greyl]

5. Lumineferous ether, flogiston

Also, the ignorance that Earth could absorb and "recycle" all the chemicals that we poured onto it. Re DDT and Rachel Carson's "Silent Spring".


edit: phlogiston ;)

[The Deacon]

13. "Unmoving Earth" and "Constant Universe"

Both were just "accepted" knowns rather than theories. When a geologist in the 1930s (I forget his name) proposed that the Earth was made up of 'plates' that moved around as a way of explaining the curious way the continents seemed to fit together like a jigsaw puzzle he was laughed at...oops, geology later realized this explained a whole lot of data they were discovering (similar dinosaurs on widely separated continents, etc.)
The idea that the Universe was static & unchanging was so firmly entrenched that when Einstein realized an equation implied an expanding Universe he fudged & introduced a "Cosmological Constant" into the equation to keep everything in place. Meanwhile, Hubble was discovering the Red Shift phenomena, explainable only by a constantly expanding Universe. Einstein later called that error his biggest blunder ever.

[Nihil]

28. Alfred Wegener

... was the name you wanted for Continental Drift / Plate Tectonics ...

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Alfred_Wegener

[hfojvt]

6. see Thomas Kuhn

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Thomas_Kuhn

but I believe he falsely uses Einstein as an example.

Perhaps Ptolemy vs. Copernicus or
Lamarck vs. Darwin

[hughee99]

8. Ptolemy vs. Copernicus

on the geocentric vs. heliocentric cosmos.

http://www2.una.edu/dburton/ptolemy_savingappearancesvsCopernicus.htm

[FSogol]

9. Didn't a lot of scientific people once believe that

the earth's core was hollow and there was life living inside the planet? I forget what they called that.

[Ouabache]

27. but it is is, isn't it?

:-)

The same folks who live on the dark side of the moon.

[FSogol]

29. Hollow Earth. Disproved by South Pole Expeditions in the 1880s.

A good primer: http://www.unmuseum.org/hollow.htm

[NNadir]

33. The existence of an electromagnetic "ether."

This was the famous Michaelson-Morley experiment.

[mephie00]

47. Um, wasn't that a Jules Vern book?

Jurney to the Center of the Earth?

[TheMadMonk]

57. Pellucider

Judging by the number of Google hits (275) for the term, i doubt it was ever a serious theory.

It would appear that it was/is an example of science fiction. Jules Verne's Jorney to the Centre of the Earth, and Edgar Rice Burrows Pellucider Universe. And of course the idea can be chased back to Dante's Inferno and beyond to Plato's underworld.


Trivia question: What do you think the gravitational field inside a hollow sphere would be like?

[Orrex]

58. A question of utmost gravity

It was my impression that gravity's effect is centered on the object's net center of mass. It would seem, then, that a hollow sphere would exert its pull from its net center, even if there's nothing there.

Of course, that would make it hard to walk on the inner, concave surface, I guess...


Anyway, by all means correct me if I'm wrong!

[Avalux]

10. Steady State Theory:

The Steady State theory in astronomy was superceded by the Big Bang theory. It was developed it the late 40's as an alternative to the idea that the universe is expanding (Hubble) and stated that although the universe may be expanding outward, it creates new matter and maintains a constant state - never really changing, and never having a beginning. The advent of our ability to see further into space and observe things like quasars made the Steady State theory obsolete.

[Ediacara]

11. Coronium? I don't know if that was ever "major"

Miogeosynclinal mountain formation, and the static location of continents. That IS a major shift in thinking.

Humans were also once believed to have evolved in the semi-desert uplands of Central Asia, because the environment "leads to adaptation." It was quite a shock when it was discovered humans came from Africa.

[trotsky]

12. delete

dupe

[Igel]

14. There's always ...

wasn't it Woehler? The guy who showed that there was no 'life force' that separated organic from inorganic compounds?

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Friedrich_Wohler

[Imperialism Inc.]

15. Ok. Thanks all.

I couldn't really think of anything major but I figured there had to be some.

And yeah I meant more or less post Newton, post scientific method.

[central scrutinizer]

17. non-Euclidean geometries

really upset the apple cart around 1800 - all of the attempts to prove Euclid's parallel postulate were doomed.

[The_Warmth]

19. Attempted overthrow...

love and compassion by bushco =p

[Midnight Rambler]

20. Atomic structures

I don't remember who it was, but the original atomic structures were so simplistic and eventually proved wrong.

[sutz12]

22. I believe that would be Rutherford and Boyle

Their models of the atom were the "tiny solar system" models popular before Quantum Mechanics.

Although thouroughly discounted, they actually still work well when you need a simple model to work with, like in chemical bonding, when it is easier to say the electron(s) in the outermost orbit, though shell is more accurate and is utilized more by real chemists.

[Random_Australian]

38. Don't forget Thomson and Dalton!

[Warpy]

21. Phlogiston

Ether (no, not the anesthetic gas, that one was real)

the philosopher's stone.

The homunculus theory of reproduction.

Lots of theories about wildlife turning into different species at different times of the year (they hadn't discovered things like pupation, dormancy, hibernation).

Phrenology.

Some theories are put forth before all the facts are in. Newton's theories are one example, although they hold up well in the world of ordinary matter. When new facts roll in, the theories are dumped over the indignant howls of whoever came up with the old theory.

[sutz12]

23. Gravity

It is no longer thought of as a "force" like EMF. Einsteinian theory posits gravity as more of a bending or warping of three dimensional space by the density of matter, rather than the interaction of some force field or undetectable particles/waves. It is difficult to model in two dimensional pictures, though.

[Ready4Change]

24. Earth Centric Universe. n/t

[HiFructosePronSyrup]

25. Quantum physics over classical physics.

I guess that was the biggest. And it's already been mentioned in regard to phlogiston, ether etc.

But I guess you can also describe it similar to Einstein "adding detail" to Newton's physics.

[Cessna Invesco Palin]

36. The theory that mountains were formed by isostatic rebout.

In the 1960s we learned that plate tectonics was responsible for much mountain formation.

[skids]

39. Earnshaw's theorem

...It wasn't so much overturned, in that the majority of people that knew about the theorem were "putting words in its mouth" by overapplying it and the popular conception of the theorem was that it forbade any sort of levitation without electromagnets and a control system.

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Earnshaw%27s_theorem

The theory is still valid, just nowadays since even a non-physicist like me can do this:


http://abrij.org/~bri/hw/diamag.html

...people realize that the theory only applies to a very limited scenario.

Now that skepticism has drunk of its own cup on the matter, passive magnetic levitation of moving objects is applied in maglevs and in some other very interesting products:


http://www.popularmechanics.com/science/research/1281766.html
(PDF) http://www.beaconpower.com/products/EnergyStorageSystems/docs/Flywheel%20Energy%20Matrix%20Systems%20-%20white%20paper.pdf
http://www.skf.com/portal/skf_rev/home/applications?contentId=079382&lang=en

[mephie00]

40. hmmm... well

A few years ago fossil discoveries changed the view of the terrestrial ancestor to whales.

I'm not positive but I think that the first law of thermodynamics (You cannot create nor destoy energy/ you can't get something from nothing) has been reinterpreted or in some instances to be incorrect. Quantum vacuum fluctuations indicate this.

Alos, the concept of "biologically distinct" races has been torn to shreds.

[Lithos]

41. Here

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Obsolete_scientific_theories#Superseded_psychological_theories

Course they do leave off the Laffer curve.

L-

[BadgerKid]

42. Not a 'theory': Earth is flat. n/t

[Nihil]

43. Pentadactyl limbs

The theory that the archtypal tetrapod had four limbs,
each having five digits ("pentadactyl" = "five-fingered").

Unfortunately for this theory, paleontological evidence
showed that of the three Devonian tetrapods that are known,
none has five toes ... they have six, seven and eight ...

For another (unrelated) case, read Stephen Jay Gould's essay
"Full of Hot Air" discussing Darwin's (erroneous) theory of
the "evolution" of swim bladders into lungs ... poor old
Charles got it 180 degrees out ... lungs evolved into swim
bladders ...

Basically, even the smartest scientists can get it wrong
with their guesses but the beauty of true science is that it
keeps an open mind and allows revisions in the light of future
evidence.

[Odin2005]

50. Thats only partially right.

The first tetrapod had more then 5 digits per limb, but the common ancestor of living amphibians and amniotes (reptiles, mammals, and birds), whic was somewhat more advanced than the first tertapod (how much more depends on which paleontologist you ask) had 5 fingers.

[Exultant Democracy]

44. The ether

they looked for it and it wasn't there.

[mephie00]

46. off the top of my head...

Lamarkian inheritance of aquired traits was overthrown. Mendelian genetics replaced the "blending theory". Whales evolving from mesonychids has been scrapped. Avian flight evolving from aboreal dinosaurs is currently on its way out. Dinosaurs having a brain in their tail has been kicked to the curb.

[NNadir]

49. The billiard ball concept of the atomic nucleus.

It was expected that the bombardment of heavy atoms with neutrons would lead to the ejection of "solid" particles such as protons and neutrons or the capture of "solid" particles. The nucleus is still (popularly) pictured as a bundle of billiard balls, two colors, one color for neutrons, another for protons.

So confident were scientists of the time in this that even a scientist as great as Enrico Fermi misinterpreted the results of his neutron bombardment experiments.

In fact, the first scientist, to stumble upon the creation of atoms of elements like barium from the neutron bombardment of uranium was Otto Hahn.

He wrote to the exiled physicist, Lise Meitner, the intellectual head of his research group then a refugee from Hitler in Sweden, to explain his results.

Working with her nephew, Otto Frisch, Dr. Meitner, one of history's greatest scientists, came up with an explanation using the liquid drop model of the atomic nucleus that explained nuclear dynamics perfectly, in terms very much like surface tension. (The idea was first advanced by Bohr.) Famously they came up with the solution explaining Hahn's results while cross country skiing. This was nuclear fission. Dr. Meitner was actually walking since the only thing she was allowed to take out of Germany with her was a suitcase of clothes. She didn't have her skis. She didn't have decades of her scientific notes. She was Jewish.

In one of the greatest injustices in attribution in the history of science, Hahn was awarded the Nobel Prize alone for the discovery of nuclear fission. Hahn was an outstanding scientist, no doubt, but without Meitner, it seems unlikely that he would have even understood what he was seeing.

After discovering fission, Dr. Meitner refused to work on the Manhattan Project, although her contribution was actively sought, on the grounds that the object of the project was a bomb. She was almost alone in this scruple, even though members of her family died in the Holocaust.

Dr. Meitner died in the late 1960's, having never received the Nobel Prize. Posthumously, some of the injustice was softened by the naming of element 109 in her honor.

Every time I think about her case, I get really angry.

My personal opinion is that without her discovery, humanity would have almost no chance of survival.

[Viva_La_Revolution]

51. North America being populated via the 'land bridge' 13,000 years ago...

The discovery of 40,000 years old human footprints in Central Mexico
http://www.mexicanfootprints.co.uk/

[Phoonzang]

53. I think those were determined to be false...

Not surprising as it would require some serious re-writing of history books. Don't upset the status quo... :)

[Viva_La_Revolution]

54. The theory is falling apart as we speak...

Language experts say there were 3 major migrations into the Americas.

Have you read "1491"? Oodles of new info is coming out.

Get out those red ink pens... there's lots of editing to be done.


It wouldn't surprise me if those dates were off, but I can't find a link saying that... I'll keep looking.

I love ancient history... it gets me all excited. :bounce:

[Phoonzang]

55. I'm a fan of ancient history myself..

..I think there's alot we still have to learn. The age of humanity keeps getting pushed back and I wonder if the date of first human settlement of the Americas will be as well.

And no I haven't read 1491, but thanks to the Internet, I can see that I might want to check it out.