10 Geniuses Who Were Proven WRONG

10 Geniuses Who Were Proven WRONG

Welcome to WatchMojo, and today we’re looking at famous physicists to legendary philosophers who made groundbreaking discoveries but also held beliefs that later evidence proved incorrect.

Isaac Newton

Sir Isaac Newton is widely considered one of the most influential scientists in history. From developing the laws of motion to helping invent calculus and formulating the theory of universal gravitation, Newton laid the foundation for modern physics. Despite these towering achievements, Newton also spent a large amount of his time studying alchemy, the mystical cousin of chemistry. The holy grail for alchemists was the ability to transform ordinary metals into gold using a legendary substance known as the philosopher’s stone. Newton devoted decades studying ancient alchemical texts and conducting secret experiments. While his work revolutionized science, the dream of turning lead into gold turned out to be a scientific dead end.

Aristotle’s Heavy Logic

One of the greatest philosophers of ancient Greece and a key figure who greatly influenced Western thought, Aristotle’s writings in philosophy, biology, politics, and early scientific thinking influenced many. Unfortunately, not all of Aristotle’s ideas about physics turned out to be correct. Aristotle believed that heavier objects fall faster than lighter ones. This seemed intuitive and was widely accepted for nearly two thousand years without anyone seriously testing it. Centuries later, Galileo Galilei, theItalian polymath of the late Renaissance and early Scientific Revolution, proved Aristotle incorrect by demonstrating that objects fall at the same rate when air resistance is removed. Gravity, it turns out, doesn’t care about weight.

Galen and the Four Humors

For more than a thousand years, Western medicine revolved around a theory known as the four humors. Formulated by the prominent Greek physician, Hippocrates, this theory suggested that human health depended on balancing four bodily fluids including blood, phlegm, yellow bile, and black bile. Hippocrates’ teachings and discoveries were expanded and popularized by the Roman physician Galen in the second century. Galen surmised that illness in the human body occurred when there was imbalance in the four humors. Treatments included bloodletting, purging, or dietary changes meant to restore harmony. Galen was an accomplished medical observer, but the humor theory ultimately misdirected medicine for centuries. Modern biology later revealed that disease is caused by pathogens, genetics, and physiological processes, not mysterious internal “juices” needing balance.

Benjamin Franklin’s Electric Fluid

Benjamin Franklin made groundbreaking contributions to the study of electricity. His famous kite experiment demonstrated the connection between lightning and electrical charge allowing scientists to better understand atmospheric electricity. However, Franklin also believed electricity behaved like a kind of invisible fluid that flowed between objects. According to his theory, positive charge meant an excess of electrical fluid, while negative charge represented a deficiency. Although the terminology remained useful, modern science has revealed that electricity is a result of the motion of electrically charged particles called electrons located within atoms. Interestingly, Franklin wasn’t alone in his misunderstanding of electricity. Despite pioneering electrical technology, Nikola Tesla rejected the idea of electrons entirely and believed electricity moved through a mysterious cosmic substance called ether, which does not exist.

Jean-Baptiste Lamarck’s Gym Routine

Long before Charles Darwin’s natural selection, French biologist Jean-Baptiste Lamarck suggested that animals evolve by passing on traits they developed during their lifetimes. In Lamarck’s perspective, individual effort coupled with environmental influence were the primary factors that enabled change in organisms. The newly acquired characteristics were then inherited by the organism’s offspring. Lamarck’s most famous example involved giraffes stretching their necks to reach higher leaves, supposedly causing their descendants to develop longer necks over generations. While Lamarck was certainly correct about the evolution of organisms, his proposed mechanism was incorrect. Modern genetics has shown that inherited traits are passed through DNA rather than through physical changes acquired during life. Evolution does occur but not through inherited gym workouts.

Ptolemy’s Centered Ego/Geocentric Universe

In the second century, the Greco-Roman astronomer Claudius Ptolemy developed one of the most detailed models of the cosmos ever constructed in the ancient world. Ptolemy’s geocentric theory of the cosmos had the Sun, Moon, and planets revolving around the Earth. Ptolemy devised an intricate system of circular paths called epicycles to explain the motion of his planets. Though complicated, the model surprisingly predicted planetary positions reasonably well. However, later observations by Ptolemy’s successors revealed that his vision of the Earth and its place in the cosmos was wrong. Earth actually orbits the Sun. The heliocentric model proposed by Nicolaus Copernicus, refined by Johannes Kepler, and supported by Galileo Galilei ultimately replaced Ptolemy’s complex cosmic clockwork.

Lord Kelvin

Lord Kelvin was among the most respected physicists of the nineteenth century and made major contributions to thermodynamics and electrical science in his lifetime. This did not mean Kelvin was not vulnerable to famous miscalculations, and he had several. In 1895, Kelvin declared that heavier-than-air flying machines were impossible, believing no engine could generate enough power to sustain flight. Just eight years later, the Wright brothers successfully flew the first powered airplane. Kelvin also estimated Earth’s age by calculating how long it would take a molten planet to cool (xref). He concluded Earth was between twenty and one hundred million years old. Later discoveries showed the planet is about 4.5 billion years old. Kelvin’s missteps proved that even the smartest scientists are vulnerable to fallacy.

Galileo Thought Tides Were Just Sloshing

For all his feats in disproving the greats of the past, even Galileo held ideas that turned out to be incorrect. Galileo’s telescopic observations supported the heliocentric model of the universe and transformed our understanding of the solar system. But when it came to explaining the ocean tides, Galileo proposed that the tides were caused by Earth’s rotation and movement through space. Describing the oceans as sloshing back and forth like water in a moving container, Galileo failed to account for the two daily tides observed in many locations, and stubbornly dismissed the competing idea that the Moon’s gravity influenced tides. Later research would prove definitively that Galileo was in the wrong this time and confirming that lunar gravitational forces dictated the Earth’s tidal cycles.

Linus Pauling

Linus Pauling was no ordinary scientist. He won two Nobel Prizes for his work on chemical bonding and his activism against nuclear weapons testing. Celebrated among the most prolific minds of the twentieth century, Pauling fell victim to some serious mistakes later in his career. Pauling was strongly convinced that extremely high doses of vitamin C could prevent or cure many illnesses, including the common cold and even cancer. He promoted this belief widely through books and lectures. Sadly for Pauling, extensive scientific studies proved that megadose injections of this vitamin were not going to provide any dramatic medical benefits. Pauling’s hope and enthusiasm for the idea unfortunately outpaced the available evidence, ultimately leading him to knock on the wrong door.

Einstein Didn’t Believe in Black Holes

When Albert Einstein published his theory of general relativity he created a revolution in physics. By describing gravity as the curvature of space and time, Einstein made a fundamental difference in our perception of gravitational forces and the nature of the universe. Ironically, the mathematics of his own equations hinted at something extraordinary: the existence of black holes. Black holes are regions of space where gravity becomes so intense that not even light can escape. In 1916, physicist Karl Schwarzschild developed a solution showing how such objects might exist. Einstein remained skeptical of the concept, calling them an “unimaginable misfortune” of his theory. Modern astronomy has since confirmed black holes through gravitational wave detections and direct imaging, proving that Einstein’s equations predicted something very real.

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Which genius mistake shocked you the most and are there others whose ideas didn’t quite hold up over time? Let us know in the comments and subscribe to never miss another WatchMojo video.