TEN BIG BLUNDERS & FALSE CLAIMS
Mars mission malfunction
NASA spent $327 million launching the Mars Climate Orbiter, which reached the red planet on 23 September 1999 – only to be lost in the Martian atmosphere. A navigation malfunction in its navigation systems was discovered to be the result of a basic error: the orbiter had been engineered using imperial measurements, but was guided using technology that followed the metric system.
The universe revolves around us
the influential (and groundbreaking) Grecoroman mathematician and geographer Ptolemy developed an astronomical model in which earth sat at the centre of the cosmos. His geocentric model went uncorrected until copernicus proposed his heliocentric theory in 1543 – nearly 1,500 years later.
Dna is a triple helix
American scientist linus Pauling was a nobel-winning chemist – but erred in 1953 when suggesting that DnA has a triple helix structure. later that year, francis Watson and James crick discovered that DnA forms a double helix.
Fire comes from phlogiston
in 1667, German alchemist Johann Joachim Becher proposed a theory of combustion claiming the existence of terra pinguis, an element released when
flammable objects are ignited. the substance was later dubbed phlogiston by Georg ernst stahl – and, of course, does not exist.
The universe is infinite
eminent – and controversial – astrophysicist fred Hoyle posited a ‘steady state’ theory, suggesting that the universe has existed and will continue to exist forever. in 1949, Hoyle derisively coined the phrase ‘big bang’ to describe the alternative theory that he continued to deride till his death in 2001.
Energy from cold fusion
in 1989, electrochemists stanley Pons and martin fleischmann announced that wwthey had detected a nuclear reaction at near room temperature – ‘cold fusion’, a holy grail for the production of cheap and abundant supply of energy. nobody has since succeeded in reproducing their results.
Creation of killer bees
Biologist Warwick Kerr began crossbreeding european and African bees near são Paulo in 1956, in an attempt to develop a species more suited to Brazil’s tropical climate. the resulting Africanised bees – aka killer bees, aggressive and prone to swarming – escaped and spread northward as far as the usA.
Travel faster than light
in 2011 the established laws of physics appeared to have been broken when an italian lab claimed to have witnessed neutrinos travelling faster than the speed of light. not so. it transpired that the GPs equipment used to track the neutrinos hadn’t been hooked up properly.
The cosmological constant
einstein, believing that the universe was static, introduced a cosmological constant to his general theory of relativity to explain how gravity was thwarted in preventing expansion. When it was discovered that the universe is expanding, he renounced the constant, calling it his ‘greatest blunder’.almost the speed of light.
The earth is young
British scientist sir William thomson, 1st Baron Kelvin, is best known for determining the value of the lowest possible temperature (absolute zero, or –273.15°c. But he also used the idea that the earth is gradually cooling to estimate its age. in 1897 he announced that the earth was 20–40 million years old. We now know that it’s about 4.5 billion years old.
the influential (and groundbreaking) Grecoroman mathematician and geographer Ptolemy developed an astronomical model in which earth sat at the centre of the cosmos. His geocentric model went uncorrected until copernicus proposed his heliocentric theory in 1543 – nearly 1,500 years later.
Dna is a triple helix
American scientist linus Pauling was a nobel-winning chemist – but erred in 1953 when suggesting that DnA has a triple helix structure. later that year, francis Watson and James crick discovered that DnA forms a double helix.
Fire comes from phlogiston
in 1667, German alchemist Johann Joachim Becher proposed a theory of combustion claiming the existence of terra pinguis, an element released when
flammable objects are ignited. the substance was later dubbed phlogiston by Georg ernst stahl – and, of course, does not exist.
The universe is infinite
eminent – and controversial – astrophysicist fred Hoyle posited a ‘steady state’ theory, suggesting that the universe has existed and will continue to exist forever. in 1949, Hoyle derisively coined the phrase ‘big bang’ to describe the alternative theory that he continued to deride till his death in 2001.
Energy from cold fusion
in 1989, electrochemists stanley Pons and martin fleischmann announced that wwthey had detected a nuclear reaction at near room temperature – ‘cold fusion’, a holy grail for the production of cheap and abundant supply of energy. nobody has since succeeded in reproducing their results.
Creation of killer bees
Biologist Warwick Kerr began crossbreeding european and African bees near são Paulo in 1956, in an attempt to develop a species more suited to Brazil’s tropical climate. the resulting Africanised bees – aka killer bees, aggressive and prone to swarming – escaped and spread northward as far as the usA.
Travel faster than light
in 2011 the established laws of physics appeared to have been broken when an italian lab claimed to have witnessed neutrinos travelling faster than the speed of light. not so. it transpired that the GPs equipment used to track the neutrinos hadn’t been hooked up properly.
The cosmological constant
einstein, believing that the universe was static, introduced a cosmological constant to his general theory of relativity to explain how gravity was thwarted in preventing expansion. When it was discovered that the universe is expanding, he renounced the constant, calling it his ‘greatest blunder’.almost the speed of light.
The earth is young
British scientist sir William thomson, 1st Baron Kelvin, is best known for determining the value of the lowest possible temperature (absolute zero, or –273.15°c. But he also used the idea that the earth is gradually cooling to estimate its age. in 1897 he announced that the earth was 20–40 million years old. We now know that it’s about 4.5 billion years old.
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