10 Most Bizarre Myths about Science and Scientists

10 Medieval Scientists Thought the Earth Was Flat

Most of us believe that medieval scientists thought the earth was flat. This doesn’t add up, does it? Brilliant minds like Roger Bacon, Albert the Great, and Michael Scot must’ve known the earth was roundish. Actually, not only them but also the ancient scientists Aristotle, Eratosthenes, and Macrobius knew that the earth was round and not flat. So why do we believe that medieval scientists thought the earth as flat? This myth was spread through literature. Through his biography of Christopher Columbus, Washington Irvine (the inventor of “Rip Van Winkle”) introduced this fabrication. His work became very influential, and other litterateur followed him. Resulting in the spread of the myth. This cliché, “Columbus’s crew was afraid to fall off the end of the earth,” is untrue; they never had this complaint. People already knew that the earth was like a sphere.[1]

9 Alchemy and Astrology are Superstitious Stuff and Not Science

Many of the theories in alchemy and astrology have proven to be false. But in the larger history of science, they have always helped scientists understand things more profoundly. Overally, their influence has been highly positive. First of all, Alchemy is not converting sulfur into gold, and astrology is not the modern-day practice of horoscopes. The premodern astrology that we are talking about considers all astronomical bodies and complexly calculates the possible effects. This is very scientific. Using astrology, scientists accurately determined the time of the rise and fall of the tides, women’s menstrual cycle, etc. This was purely naturalistic, not magical.

Alchemy’s goal, on the other hand, was to understand what a material was comprised of and how to improve the material. Actually, in premodern times, alchemy and chemistry were so much alike that they were interchangeable. Alchemy was the earliest scientific attempt to change the world through technology. Famous scientists such as Robert Boyle and Isaac Newton were alchemists.[2]

8 Galileo Experimented from the Campanile of Pisa

The tale goes that Galileo Galilei, while being a teacher at the University of Pisa, conducted an experiment on the velocity of a light and a heavy object by throwing them off the campanile of Pisa. Scientists actually conducted this kind of a simple experiment from the window of their rooms. Hence this story is clearly nonsensical. There are other strong reasons as well. So whenever you see an art presenting Galileo at the top of the campanile of Pisa, understand that the portrayal is erroneous.[3]

7 Darwin and Haeckel were Active Nazi Biologists

This myth is also rampant among numerous people. One of the most prominent promoter of this has been the scientist Stephen Jay Gould. Now almost in all anti-evolution websites, this myth may be discovered. Classifying and evaluating the human races is not the same as degrading one and upgrading the other. It is rather to show what occurs in reality. This is simply explaining the facts.

Moreover, there were many other scientists who did this before these two. This was a common and essential practice. A hierarchy from the lower to the higher is pervasive in biology; it’s a regular thing. This certainly doesn’t mean that those with lower attributes are lesser human beings. It is merely a biological classification. Few people who didn’t like the idea of evolution interpreted this as degrading certain people. Thus, the myth. Darwin and Haeckel advocated the exact opposite views, as reflected in their lives. [4]

6 Science and Pseudoscience are Precisely Separated

Though naturally, we desire to believe that science and pseudoscience are significantly different stuff, the line between the two, in reality, can be extremely thin. In philosophy of science, this is called “the demarcation problem.” For example, phlogiston was once considered a chemical material existent in air. The theory went like this: When something burns, a substance called ‘phlogiston’ is released into the atmosphere. At one point, it even led to the discovery of nitrogen. However, later on, it was discovered that phlogiston doesn’t even exist! So, whenever a scientist spoke about phlogiston, was it science or pseudoscience? Indeed it was not scientific, but can we stop theorizing because of some mistakes like this? Surely not.

On the other hand, if a practice considered pseudoscience turns out to be reasonable in the future, doesn’t that mean it is rather scientific? So what we imagined as pseudoscience for centuries was actually science, and we were on the wrong side! There is, in actuality, nothing that can clearly separate science and pseudoscience for good.[5]

5 Scientist Bruno was Burned Alive

Giordano Bruno is pretty much a household name. In reality, he was a priest. He was an apostate priest. Wait, what? Yes, he was not a scientist. Not in the formal sense or in the informal one. He belonged to the monastic order and thus fell reasonably under the legal jurisdiction of the church. His deeds were obviously religious, not scientific. He practiced forbidden magic, not science. The impulse of putting science and religion at odds created this myth out of nothing, making a heretical magician nobody into a great scientist![6]

4 Copernicus was Persecuted for his Sun-Centred Planetary Model

Most of us know that Nicolaus Copernicus published his book Dē revolutionibus orbium coelestium on his deathbed. This is interpreted as “Copernicus was afraid that the church would persecute him for his belief of a heliocentric universe.” The real reason why Copernicus did that was the scientific community, not the church. Just imagine, wouldn’t everyone oppose someone if he came up today and said the sun actually circumnavigates around the earth? For that time, it was the same scenario. His theories were severely criticized by scientists. Even a scientist as great as Tycho Brahe didn’t agree with him. So he was delaying the publication because he was making constant corrections and wanted to publish it as late as possible for it to be the best outcome.[7]

3 Galileo was Tortured for Doing Science

Galileo Galilei perfected the Copernican model. Yes, for this, he received various aggressive behavior but never was he tortured. The worst, he was once taken to the door of the torture chamber and was shown the torture materials, which were to scare him into submitting that the sun circumnavigates around the earth. Then, he was put on house arrest. That is it. The house arrest didn’t obliviate his brilliance. He wrote his best work ever while under house arrest, Two New Sciences.

On the other hand, there were also church members who defended Galileo. This wasn’t one-sided. For example, pope Maffeo Barberini was in awe of Galileo. He always funded Galileo’s science and gave his support to Galileo. [8]

2 Newton Discovered Gravity because an Apple Fell on His Head

Perhaps the most favorite myth in the air. There exist maybe a thousand jokes about this concocted incident. It is presented as a real story of a scientist in various history books. Scientific reports of these kinds are usually fantasized: Archimedes’s shouting eureka, James Watt’s fascination with a boiling kettle, Ibn al-Haytham going crazy, Galileo experimenting from the campanile of Pisa, etc. There is more than one account of an apple falling and Newton getting the idea of gravity. However, the apple fell on newton’s head — this anecdote was created by Isaac Disraeli. This is very negative because it undermines years of research and shows that outstanding scientific achievements can occur by accidental insights. Anyways, the time when this incident is set was 20 years before newton published his theory of gravity. So even if the anecdote of a falling apple is true, does it hold much relevance? [9]

1 Scientists are Lonely

This is a myth that has the potential to negatively influence many people. Culturally we believe that scientists pass most of their lives, without family, without partners, without any joy. However, this is absolutely untrue. Scientists do not live solitary lives. Rather they live normal day-to-day working lives like others. This myth persists, mainly because of various fictitious stories. There are other reasons as well. One is that theories, laws, and principles are named after a single scientist most of the time. When we hear the same single scientist’s name repeatedly for many theories or laws, we tend to assume that he did so many things; life must have been black and white. In reality, scientists don’t even do things alone. Isaac Newton published his groundbreaking book Principia Mathematica because another scientist Edmond Halley pushed him to publish it. Scientist Augustin Fresnel was in constant contact with France’s Academy of Sciences and other communities while figuring out if light was composed of particles or waves. No one should be afraid thinking that science will eat up their lives. Scientists live everyday lives, not solitary ones. [10]