Science's graveyard: ideas the evidence retired
View only
Eighteen ideas that serious people once believed, each beside the evidence that retired it. Being wrong in public is how science moves.
Made with Capsule Mapping. Create a free account to make your own, or sign in.
Physics, chemistry and the sky
Medicine and life
Debunked
Phlogiston Theory
Proven
Conservation of Mass
Debunked
The Caloric Theory
Theory
Thermodynamics
Debunked
The Luminiferous Aether
Proven
The Michelson-Morley Experiment
Debunked
The Geocentric Model
Proven
Heliocentrism
Debunked
The Steady State Theory
Proven
The Cosmic Microwave Background
Debunked
The Expanding Earth
Theory
Plate Tectonics
Debunked
The Planet Vulcan
Theory
General Relativity
Debunked
The Martian Canals
Fact
Mars
Debunked
N-Rays
Fact
The Scientific Method
Debunked
Miasma Theory
Theory
Germ Theory of Disease
Debunked
Humorism: The Four Humors
Debunked
Bloodletting
Proven
The Randomised Controlled Trial
Debunked
Spontaneous Generation
Proven
Pasteurization
Debunked
Vitalism
Fact
Metabolism
Debunked
Lamarckism
Theory
The Modern Evolutionary Synthesis
Debunked
Phrenology
Fact
Brain Imaging
Debunked
Piltdown Man
Proven
Radiocarbon Dating
Debunked
Cold Fusion at Room Temperature
Fact
Peer Review
None of these were silly at the time. Each fitted the evidence people had. They were retired because someone measured something new.
Theory
Epigenetics
Epigenetics brought back a small echo of Lamarck: some marks on genes can pass to offspring. It does not rescue the old theory.
Question
Which idea we hold today will end up on a board like this one?
Theory
Special Relativity