The most genuine merit of science is probably its readiness to admit if it preaches or reveals something wrong. The therios in science are always being reconsidered and scrutinized. Modern research often rejects old ideas, hoaxes and myths.

Today’s post on our Science Blog will discuss ten of the most popular and influential scientific discoveries that were based on dubious data, and were consequently proven wrong, debunked and replaced with more reliable and logical modern theories.

1- Fleischmann–Pons’s Nuclear Fusion

Cold fusion is a supposed kind of nuclear reaction that would occur at relatively low temperatures compared with hot fusion. As a new type of nuclear reaction, it gained much popularity after reports in 1989 by famous electrochemists Stanley Pons and Martin Fleischmann. The craze about cold fusion became weaker as other scientists, after trying to repeat the experiment, failed to get similar results.

2- Phrenology

Now widely considered as a pseudoscience, phrenology was the study of the shape of skull as indicative of the strengths of different faculties. Modern scientific research wiped it out by proving that personality traits could not be traced to specific portions of the brain.

3- The Blank Slate

The Blank Slate theory (or Tabula rasa), widely popularized by John Locke in 1689, proposed that individuals are born without built-in mental content and that their knowledge comes from experience and perception. Modern research suggests that genes and other family traits inherited from birth, along with innate instincts of course, also play a very important role.

4- Luminiferous Aether

The aether (or ether) was a mysterious substance that was thought to transmit light through the universe. The idea of a luminiferous aether was debunked as experiments in the diffraction and refraction of light, and later Einstein’s special theory of relativity, came along and entirely revolutionized physics.

5- Einstein’s Static (or Stationary) Universe

A static universe, also called a “stationary” or “Einstein” universe, was a model proposed by Albert Einstein in 1917. It was problematic from the beginning. Edwin Hubble’s discovery of the relationship between red shift obliterated it by completely demonstrating that the universe is constantly expanding.

6- Martian Canals

The Martian canals were a network of gullies and ravines that some 19th century scientists erroneously thought to exist on Mars. First detected in 1877 by Italian astronomer Giovanni Schiaparelli, modern telescopes and imaging technology completely debunked the myth. The “canals” were actually found to be a mere optical illusion.

7- Phlogiston Theory

First postulated in 1667 by German physician Johann Joachim Becher, Phlogiston Theory is an obsolete scientific theory regarding the existence of “phlogiston”, a fire-like element, which was contained within combustible bodies and released during combustion. The theory tried to explain burning processes such as combustion and the rusting of metals, which are now jointly termed as “oxidation”.

8- The Expanding or Growing Earth

The Expanding Earth or Growing Earth is a hypothesis suggesting that the position and relative movement of continents is dependent on the volume of the Earth increasing. Modern science has turned down any expansion or contraction of the Earth.

9- Discovery of the Planet Vulcan

A small planet that was supposed to exist in an orbit between Mercury and the Sun, French mathematician Urbain Jean Joseph Le Verrier coined the name “Vulcan” while trying to explain the nature of Mercury’s orbit. No such planet was ever discovered, while the orbit of Mercury was explained in detail by Albert Einstein’s theory of general relativity.

10- Spontaneous (or Equivocal) Generation

Spontaneous generation or equivocal generation is an obsolete principle concerning the origin of life from inanimate matter. The hypothesis was brought out by Aristotle who advocated the work of earlier natural philosophers. It was proven wrong in the 19th century by the experiments of Louis Pasteur, drawing influence from Francesco Redi who was an early proponent of germ theory and cell theory.

The recently discovered fossil of a “feathered” dinosaur in China was about the size of a school bus, the prestigious science journal Nature reports. There are even possibilities that the larger ones may have been warm-blooded. Dubbed as the “little brother” to the Tyrannosaurus rex, the newly-discovered species was named the “Yutyrannus huali”, which, in Mandarin and Latin languages, means “beautiful feathered tyrant.”

Kristi Curry Rogers, a paleontologist from Macalester College, told Steven John of NPR’s All Things Considered on April 6 that it was the largest dinosaur to be found with well-preserved feathers, weighing over 3,000 pounds.

So how did the universe begin? How did life arise on Earth? These have been mankind’s most important questions through the ages. In the last century, we have learned more about science and the creation of the universe, than everything that was known before the twentieth century. What is more notable, the last decade has opened new discoveries leading to new theories that give us unique hypotheses about the presence of God and the nature of the universe.

Today’s article will discuss some of the most famous scientists in history who believed in God.

Albert Einstein (1879-1955)

Arthur Compton (1892 – 1962)

Blaise Pascal (1623-1662)

Ernst Haeckel (1834 –1919)

Erwin Schrödinger (1887 –1961)

Francis Bacon (1561-1627)

Francis Collins (Born 1950)

Galileo Galilei (1564-1642)

Gottfried Leibniz (1646 –1716)

Gregor Mendel (1822-1884)

Guglielmo Marconi (1874 –1937)

Isaac Newton (1642-1727)

James Clerk Maxwell (1831 –1879)

Johannes Kepler (1571-1630)

John Eccles (1903 – 1997)

Louis Pasteur (1822-1895)

Max Planck (1858-1947)

Michael Faraday (1791-1867)

Nicholas Copernicus (1473-1543)

Rene Descartes (1596-1650)

Robert Boyle (1791-1867)

Robert A. Millikan (1868 – 1953)

Werner Heisenberg (1901 – 1976)

William Harvey (1578 –1657)

William Thomson Kelvin (1824-1907)

Many famous scientists and inventors of all ages have admitted to taking psychedelic drugs. Some of them have even claimed that recreational drugs enhance creativity, inventiveness and intelligence, while others have gone one to advocate drug usage. Timothy Leary, the legendary American psychologist, philosopher and scientist, gained notoriety worldwide, during the 1960s and 1970s, for his advocacy of psychedelic drugs.

Today’s article on our Science Blog will talk about well-known scientific visionaries and inventors who experiment with drugs.

Andrew Weil – Morphine

Andrew Weil is widely credited as the founder of “integrative medicine”. Weil is open about his use of chocolate, morphine and other drugs. He also has a psychedelic mushroom, Psilocybe weilii, named after him.

Bill Gates — LSD

This guy isn’t exactly an inventor, but certainly one of the most important entrepreneurs in the personal computer revolution. In an interview with Playboy, Gates has admitted using LSD in his “errant youth”.

Carl Sagan — Marijuana

Probably the most influential astrophysicist and cosmologist in history, Carl Sagan not only smoked but advocated use of marijuana in his 1971 book Marijuana Reconsidered.

Francis Crick — LSD

The legendary molecular biologist Francis Crick had told his Cambridge fellow, Dick Kemp, that he surprisingly had “perceived the double-helix shape while on LSD.”

John C. Lilly — LSD, Ketamine

Neurocientist John Cunningham Lilly was the most important figure in the field of electronic brain stimulation. He extensively experimented with LSD and ketamine.

Kary Mullis — LSD

Kary Banks Mullis was an American biochemist who won the 1993 Nobel Prize in Chemistry for making valuable improvements to polymerase chain reaction (PCR) technique. Mullies once told California Monthly that he “took plenty of LSD”.

Paul Erdös — Amphetamines

Paul Erdös was a leading Hungarian mathematician and a highly prolific author. Known for his eccentric personality, reportedly wasn’t able to get any mathematical work done for almost a month when he quit taking amphetamine as he’d made a $500 bet with his friend Ronald Graham.

Ralph Abraham – LSD/ Other

Ralph Abraham is a prominent American mathematician. In an interview with GQ magazine, Abraham discussed how psychedelic insights had helped influence his mathematical theories. He took LSD and other psychedelic drugs.

Richard Feynman — LSD, Marijuana, Ketamine

One of the greatest theoretical physicists in history, Richard Feynman briefly experimented with LSD, marijuana and ketamine.

Sigmund Freud — Cocaine

The great Austrian neurologist and founder of psychoanalysis, Sigmund Freud described cocaine as a “wonder drug”. He also used marijuana until his death in 1996.

Stephen Jay Gould – Marijuana

Famous American American paleontologist and evolutionary biologist Stephen Jay Gould had reportedly been using marijuana since 1982 until his death in 2002.

Steve Jobs — LSD

Steve Jobs, arguably the most revered pioneer in the personal computer revolution, once stated that experimenting with LSD in the 1960s was “one of the two or three most important things he had done in his life.”

Thomas Alva Edison — Cocaine Elixers

The most famous and prolific inventor in history, Thomas Alva Edison frequently used “Vin Mariani”, a Bordeaux wine treated with coca leaves invented by French chemist Angelo Mariani.

Timothy Leary – LSD/ Other

As we have mentioned above, Timothy Leary, remains of the most popular consumers and advocates of LSD. He also frequently used mushrooms.

The Google logo on its home page has been replaced with an animated image of waves on a graph to mark the 155th birthday of Heinrich Rudolf Hertz, the legendary German physicist known for his groundbreaking work on electromagnetic waves. The animated waves shown in the Google doodle are in the search engine’s trademark colours; blue, red, yellow and green.