Most scientific mistakes are made in private – scientists don’t like bungling in public. But some of the greatest scientists and inventors in history have bungled in public, their utterances refuted within just a few years. Some were unsupportable even at the time they were made. Collectively they call to mind Arthur C. Clarke’s well-known law:
“When a distinguished but elderly scientist states that something is possible, he is almost certainly right. When he states that something is impossible, he is very probably wrong.”
My only disagreement with Clarke is over the scientist’s age. Younger scientists are also perfectly capable of embarrassing themselves.
“In this field [physics] almost everything is already discovered, and all that remains is to fill a few unimportant holes.”
Philipp von Jolly, Physicist
1874
“I do not think that the wireless waves I have discovered will have any practical application.”
Heinrich Hertz, Physicist
1890
“There is no likelihood man can ever tap the power of the atom. The glib supposition of utilizing atomic energy when our coal has run out is a completely unscientific Utopian dream, a childish bug-a-boo.”
Robert A. Millikan, Physicist
1928
“The energy produced by the breaking down of the atom is a very poor kind of thing. Anyone who expects a source of power from the transformation of the atom is talking moonshine.”
Ernest Rutherford, Physicist
1933
“…splitting the atom by bombardment is something akin to shooting birds in the dark in a place where there are only a few birds…There is not the slightest indication that [nuclear energy] will ever be obtainable. It would mean that the atom would have to be shattered at will.”
Albert Einstein, Physicist
1934
“…I see a pressing need to prepare thinking adults for the outcome of the present search activity – the imminent detection of signals from an extraterrestrial civilization. This discovery, which I fully expect to witness before the year 2000, will profoundly change the world.”
Frank Drake, Astronomer
1992
“If you asked me whether the sun can be inhabited by beings organized in a manner similar to those which populate the earth, I would not hesitate to say yes.”
Dominique Francois Arago, Astronomer and Physicist
1836
“Transport by railroad car would result in the emasculation of our troops and would deprive them of the option of the great marches which have played such an important role in the triumph of our armies.”
Dominique Francois Arago, Astronomer and Physicist
1836
“My dynamite will sooner lead to peace than a thousand world conventions. As soon as men find that in one instant whole armies can be utterly destroyed, they surely will abide by golden peace.”
Alfred Nobel, Chemist
c. 1868
“The curious associations with lung cancer found in relation to smoking habits do not, in the minds of some of us, lend themselves easily to the simple conclusion that the products of combustion reaching the surface of the bronchus induce, though after a long interval, the development of a cancer.”
Ronald Fisher, Geneticist and Statistician
1958
“It seems necessary to conclude that there are on the moon living creatures capable of reason that can bring about organization…”
Johannes Kepler, Astronomer and Physicist
1623
“I have shown that we have reason to look upon the sun as a most magnificent habitable globe.”
William Herschel, Astronomer
1801
“We are probably nearing the limit of all we can know about astronomy.”
Simon Newcomb, Astronomer and Mathematician
1888
“While theoretically and technically television may be feasible, commercially and financially I consider it an impossibility, a development of which we need waste little time dreaming.”
Lee de Forest, triode vacuum tube’s inventor
1926
“This foolish idea of shooting at the moon is an example of the absurd length to which vicious specialization will carry scientists working in thought-tight compartments.”
Alexander William Bickerton, Chemist and Physicist
1926
“There is not in sight any source of energy that would be a fair start toward that which would be necessary to get us beyond the gravitative control of the earth.”
Forest Ray Moulton, Astronomer
1935
“To place a man in a multi-stage rocket and project him into the controlling gravitational field of the moon… and then return to earth – all that constitutes a wild dream worthy of Jules Verne. I am bold enough to say that such a man-made voyage will never occur regardless of all future advances.”
Lee de Forest, triode vacuum tube’s inventor
1957
“I’m convinced that before the year 2000 is over, the first child will have been born on the moon.”
Wernher von Braun, Rocket Engineer
1972
“I have not the smallest molecule of faith in aerial navigation other than ballooning… So you will understand that I would not care to be a member of the aeronautical Society.”
William Thomson (Lord Kelvin), Physicist
1896
“May not our mechanicians… be ultimately forced to admit that aerial flight is one of the great class of problems with which man can never cope, and give up all attempts to grapple with it?”
Simon Newcomb, Astronomer and Mathematician
1903
“… I have established by experiments which admit of no doubt that the sun and other celestial bodies steadily increase in mass and energy and ultimately must explode, reverting to the primary substance.”
Nikola Tesla, Inventor
1935
“How a continent composed of rock some 35 kilometers thick could contrive to move is something that has never been explained, and until some plausible reason is offered in its support we need scarcely take the notion of ‘drifting continents’ at all seriously.”
Fred Hoyle, Astrophysicist
1955
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Author of this page: The Doc
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One of my Favorite quotes I include in my email signature
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When you seek a new path to truth, you must
expect to find it blocked by expert opinion.
— Albert J. Guerard
From Carl Sagan… “Mistrust arguments from authority… Too many such arguments have proved too painfully wrong. Authorities must prove their contentions like everybody else.”