Scientists Who Were Ridiculed Proven Correct We still have a lot to learn about quantum physics. That is the realm of the incredibly small. Recently a report came out which states we might be wrong about some of our assumptions. This reminds me of the old saw which said, never ASSUME because it makes an Ass out of U and Me. Anyway, it seems we are right about at least some of our beliefs and scientists are saying there may be something beyond quantum physics. In science we have learned we sometimes have to make mistakes in order to find the correct solutions. This is true no matter how long we have believed something was correct. Scientists always have to keep an open mind, but the problem is some of them get so used to some beliefs they become the equivalent of holy and some scientists then believe anyone who deviates from these beliefs should be ridiculed and sometimes even dismissed. Such was the case for evolution for a very long time. Most scientists dared not to speak out against Darwin because they knew they would suffer the wrath of the scientific community. There are many scientific fields of study, as we all know and some are more rigid in their beliefs than others. Take archaeology for example. The many sometimes have contempt for the few. The few being those who do not go along with such things as the age of the pyramids or the Sphinx for example. Some scientists, archeologists, believe these structures are much older than stated and claim the proof is right before our eyes. They not only cite the fact of the water erosion on the Giza plateau which left marks on the structures there from about 25,000 years ago, but also the fact there is a plaque in Egypt, they are called Stelae, which tells us the pyramid was already there when it was supposed to be being built. One scientist tells us he does not know the exact age of the pyramid but it has to be somewhere around 13,500 years old and the Sphinx may be even older. Sometimes the rank and file are right to disregard the experiments of their peers, if they are truly nonsense, but they should be examined carefully first. Such were the experiments of Johann Conrad Dippel. He was born in all places at castle Frankenstein in 1673 and is remembered for inventing Prussian Blue dye, but not so much for his crazy experiments and fantastic claims. He would stew down animal bones and hides and then tell everyone who would listen he had created an elixir which would extend life if taken internally. Maybe if someone was suffering from severe malnutrition this might help, but all in all it was a crazy idea, and he didn’t seem to care and continued to push this. Edward Jenner was a scientist in Britain. When smallpox was raging in 1796, he was determined to try and cure it. He notice there was a group of people who didn’t seem to catch the disease and these were milkmaids. He studied the problem and decided they all had caught a mild version of the disease which protected them. He decided to try and inoculate someone by putting a small amount of cowpox in a wound and that person never caught smallpox. Jenner went through a lot of ridicule. People were afraid of turning into cows and political cartoons showed people growing horns. The vaccine was not trusted by a lot of people including scientists. Sound familiar? There were two scientists who bucked the current belief at the time that stomach ulcers were caused by stress. They were Barry Marshall and J. Robin Warren. They were ridiculed for not believing this and saying a bacterium was responsible. As time went by more scientists became to believe in their research until finally, they were awarded the Nobel Prize. Can you imagine all the people before that discovery who were stuffed with drugs to calm them down which were totally unnecessary? Recently in a cancer test a patient was given a drug as part of a trial. The drug had side effects which were dangerous. The doctors involved wanted to know why these side effects were produced and surprised at what they found. Even though the test was a failure, it let them gain knowledge of what was causing these side effects and will make the next trial much better. One scientist who was berated for his ideas was proven right years later. Before the 19 century doctors would think nothing about operating on you with dirty hands or touching you with them. A Hungarian doctor named Ignaz Semmelweis noticed one hospital had a ten percent death rate among new mothers while another had four percent. He decided to investigate the cause and noticed the one with the higher had medical students going from examining dead bodies to birthing babies without cleaning up. When he suggested washing up, he was laughed at because doctors in his time thought infections were caused by bad air. Still, he had his staff wash their hands in chlorine lime solutions and the death rate went down to between 1 and 2 percent. This was at a time when germs were unknown. This just shows us at fighting against adversity sometimes is responsible for advances in science. When Thomas Edison wanted to install electrical power stations that ran on direct current, he was butting heads with Nikola Tesla’s invention which was alternating current. Edison did everything he could to discredit Tesla by trying to make him look like a mad man pushing a dangerous idea. To demonstrate this, he would place animals on a grid and in front of a crowd run a/c through their bodies killing them. He even killed an elephant this way and even more horrible built an electric chair for executions in a prison using a/c to prove how dangerous it was. The first person to be executed died a horrible death thanks to him. The year was 1890 and the man to be executed was William Kemmler who was convicted of killing his wife. Kemmler had his head shaved and was strapped to the chair and a metal restraint was put over his head. A switch which controlled 1,000 volts was thrown. The day before a horse was electrocuted in the chair. For 17 seconds current went through Kemmler’s body and he was declared dead. It was then realized he was alive and the execution was repeated with 2,000 volts. His blood vessels ruptured and some say he caught fire. His flesh began to singe. It took over 8 minutes to kill him. In the end, even after all the dastardly deeds Edison pulled, it was proven direct current was not the answer and was not practical and Tesla was right, alternating current was much easier to use since it did not require anywhere as many booster stations.
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