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.
![Philipp von Jolly](https://www.famousscientists.org/fs/wp-content/plugins/lazy-load/images/1x1.trans.gif)
![Heinrich Hertz](https://www.famousscientists.org/fs/wp-content/plugins/lazy-load/images/1x1.trans.gif)
![Robert A. Millikan](https://www.famousscientists.org/fs/wp-content/plugins/lazy-load/images/1x1.trans.gif)
![Ernest Rutherford](https://www.famousscientists.org/fs/wp-content/plugins/lazy-load/images/1x1.trans.gif)
![Albert Einstein](https://www.famousscientists.org/fs/wp-content/plugins/lazy-load/images/1x1.trans.gif)
![Frank Drake](https://www.famousscientists.org/fs/wp-content/plugins/lazy-load/images/1x1.trans.gif)
![Dominique Francois Arago](https://www.famousscientists.org/fs/wp-content/plugins/lazy-load/images/1x1.trans.gif)
![Dominique Francois Arago](https://www.famousscientists.org/fs/wp-content/plugins/lazy-load/images/1x1.trans.gif)
![Alfred Nobel](https://www.famousscientists.org/fs/wp-content/plugins/lazy-load/images/1x1.trans.gif)
![Ronald Fisher](https://www.famousscientists.org/fs/wp-content/plugins/lazy-load/images/1x1.trans.gif)
![Johannes Kepler](https://www.famousscientists.org/fs/wp-content/plugins/lazy-load/images/1x1.trans.gif)
![William Herschel](https://www.famousscientists.org/fs/wp-content/plugins/lazy-load/images/1x1.trans.gif)
![Simon Newcomb](https://www.famousscientists.org/fs/wp-content/plugins/lazy-load/images/1x1.trans.gif)
![Lee de Forest](https://www.famousscientists.org/fs/wp-content/plugins/lazy-load/images/1x1.trans.gif)
![Alexander William Bickerton](https://www.famousscientists.org/fs/wp-content/plugins/lazy-load/images/1x1.trans.gif)
![Forest Ray Moulton](https://www.famousscientists.org/fs/wp-content/plugins/lazy-load/images/1x1.trans.gif)
![Lee de Forest](https://www.famousscientists.org/fs/wp-content/plugins/lazy-load/images/1x1.trans.gif)
![Wernher von Braun](https://www.famousscientists.org/fs/wp-content/plugins/lazy-load/images/1x1.trans.gif)
![William Thomson Lord Kelvin](https://www.famousscientists.org/fs/wp-content/plugins/lazy-load/images/1x1.trans.gif)
![Simon Newcomb](https://www.famousscientists.org/fs/wp-content/plugins/lazy-load/images/1x1.trans.gif)
![Nikola Tesla](https://www.famousscientists.org/fs/wp-content/plugins/lazy-load/images/1x1.trans.gif)
![Fred Hoyle](https://www.famousscientists.org/fs/wp-content/plugins/lazy-load/images/1x1.trans.gif)
Author of this page: The Doc
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One of my Favorite quotes I include in my email signature
———————————————————–
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.”