Science Figures Who Were Initially Called Crazy, But were Right All Along

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By Monica Gray - January 31, 2023

It’s embarrassing when we try and prove someone wrong, only to discover they’re right. It is cringe-worthy, and quite frankly, makes us look like a fool. On the other side, no one wants to be disproven, especially when they know they’re right. Throughout history, science figures have repeatedly tried to prove something but were initially called crazy by the general public. If we’d listened to these intelligent people straight away, we might’ve prevented many diseases or made discoveries about food and health issues earlier. At least we now have tons of scientific facts right under our belts that are there to teach us a thing or two about the world and how it works. Next time you have an outlandish idea, don’t let the non-believers stop you. It’s always worth trying, even if you fail miserably.

Science Figures Who Were Initially Called Crazy, But were Right All Along — Bored Panda

Giant Oil Companies Called Clair Patterson Crazy For Discovering Lead In Our Bodies

Patterson tested ice cores down in the Arctic, and his findings caused him to earn the title of a crazy man by big oil companies. He figured out we had a high amount of lead in our water, the atmosphere, and our bodies. Leaded gasoline caused these high levels, and as a result, the oil companies labeled him an enemy. This makes sense, considering their source of income is the purchase of oil. We can’t blame them for trying, even if we’re the ones suffering for it. Patterson tried to petition Congress for many years and tried to make it illegal to add lead to gasoline. It was Patterson against Ethyl Corporation, DuPont, and the American Petroleum Institute. Corporations shut him down. Lead is shaped like a neurotransmitter and blocks receptors causing insanity, similar to mercury. Many people in the oil industry had gone mad, and it wasn’t until decades later that lead was removed from gasoline (Anthony Turton).

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Dr. Bennet Omalu Found CTE In Football Players, But The NFL Denied It

Playing football is dangerous, and it can lead to a host of mental problems, brain trauma, heart conditions, musculoskeletal injuries, inflammation, pain, and as Dr. Bennet Omalu discovered, CTE. Omalu is a forensic pathologist who performed an autopsy on Mike Webster, a former Pittsburgh Steelers player. Because of a chronic head trauma he discovered, he found chronic traumatic encephalopathy, also called CTE in 2002. It’s a form of dementia that’s caused by repeated head trauma. It’s a serious safety issue that’s caused Omalu another host of problems. He was trying to do the right thing, but the NFL called him crazy. It wasn’t until 2009, that the NFL acknowledged the link between concussions in football and long-term neurological damage, even though some aspects of the disease remain a mystery (Washington Post).

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William Coley Was Called Crazy For His Immunotherapy Cancer Treatments

Cancer treatment has come a long way. In the 1800s, due to a lack of technology and science, we have nowadays, doctors surgically removed tumors or cancerous tissues. They did not use chemotherapy or radiation, since it did not yet exist. We can thank modern technology and how far we’ve come. One of the first pioneers of cancer research was William Coley. He discovered cancer treatments involving the immune system to attack cancer cells. He played around with toxins, such as dead bacteria like streptococcus, and injected them in patients to help trigger their immune systems to kill the cancer cells. Many of his scientific peers rejected him and his ideas and called him crazy and outlandish. He died before learning how influential his discoveries were today. The most outlandish ideas in science are usually the ones that leave a dent (Medical Daily).

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An 18th Century Priest Knew How Viruses Work, But Was Called Crazy

The 1771 plague claimed up to 100,000 lives in Moscow and thousands more outside the city. But during the plague, a priest warned citizens to not kiss the statue of Maria. The public kissed it for religious reasons. With the recent spread of COVID, even we think kissing a statue that thousands of others kissed is a bad idea. Because the plague virus was spreading so rapidly, the priest tried to discourage people, temporarily, to stop kissing the statue. But no one believed him and called him crazy. As a result, he was burned alive for blasphemy (Bored Panda).

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William Harvey And Blood Circulation

William Harvey, in the 17th century, discovered the circulation of blood to the brain, body, and heart. This was a significant finding, as previously it was believed that blood flowed through the liver. He published his findings in “De Motu Cordis” (“On the Motion of the Heart and Blood”) in 1628, providing comprehensive information on blood circulation. However, his ideas were met with resistance from fellow scientists and the public who still followed the teachings of the 2nd-century philosopher Galen, who claimed that the liver produced blood from food. Harvey faced significant opposition and lived a private life as a result. He once said, “it’s often better to become wise at home in private, than to publish your hard-won knowledge and stir up tempests that rob you of peace for the rest of your life.” Harvey’s story serves as a reminder that speaking the truth can be challenging and rejection is a common experience, even for the most famous scientists (Medical Daily).

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Galileo Was Ridiculed For Discovering The Earth Orbited The Sun

Contrary to popular belief at the time, Galileo Galilei believed the planets and the Earth orbited the sun. Technology has improved since the 1600s, but back then, everyone called him crazy. Everyone believed that the stars and sun orbited around the Earth. It was likely equivalent to the ideas of the Flat Earth theorists that exist nowadays. Let’s hope you’re not one of them. The Catholic church called Galilei’s beliefs heresy and put him on trial for his beliefs. Practices demanded to seclude and imprison him during his trial. The Church even went so far as to say, “we pronounce, judge, and declare, that you, the said Galileo… have rendered yourself vehemently suspected by this Holy Office of heresy, that is, of having believed and held the doctrine (which is false and contrary to the Holy and Divine Scriptures) that the sun is the center of the world, and that it does not move from east to west, and that the earth does move, and is not the center of the world.” He then spent the rest of his life under house arrest (History).

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Not Everybody Liked Edison’s Lightbulb

Learning about Thomas Edison in schools is a requirement. He is, after all, the inventor of the lightbulb, even though many claims he stole the patent from someone else. Either way, there is a lightbulb regardless of who invented it. When Edison first came up with the idea, not everyone was impressed. He received a lot of backlash and was initially called crazy. How could we, after all, have a tiny piece of glass that brightens up a room with electricity? In the 1800s, this idea seemed outlandish. A chief engineer for the British Post Office said the “subdivision of the electric light is an absolute ignis fatuus,” which means it’s a complete work of fiction and utterly impossible to attain. Well, look where we are now (Insider).

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The Idea Of Kolff’s Dialysis Was Terrifying & Insane To Most People

Without dialysis, humans would not survive kidney disease. It would be a death sentence, as it was before the Second World War. But Dr. Willem Kolff came up with a brilliant idea to artificially stimulate the kidney. He invented dialysis, and at first, thousands of people called him crazy. He claimed that taking all the blood out of our body, cleaning it, and putting it back in, would help prevent death from kidney disease. We get it, it sounds outlandish, but that’s exactly what dialysis does. When he started, he only had simple materials like orange juice cans, a washing machine, and sausage skins to use. His first patients died, which is understandable, but those people were likely to die anyway. It took some trial and error, but he was eventually able to make a machine that worked to save people’s lives (Achievement).

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Francis Peyton Rous Discovered The Relation Between Viruses And Cancer

What we know nowadays about cancer and viruses was foreign news during the early 1900s. Francis Peyton Rous was a virologist who helped pave the way to cancer research. His peers called his initial efforts crazy, and his work was overlooked for over 50 years. He claimed certain viruses may play a role in the development of cancer. This is why vaccines like the HPV vaccine exist, to help prevent the HPV virus from turning into cervical cancer. In 1911, “Rous noted that a sarcoma growing on a chicken could be transmitted to healthy chickens through a cell-free extract injection of chicken tumor. His findings were largely discredited, however, and he didn’t get rewarded for his work until over 50 years later, when he was given the Nobel Prize in Physiology or Medicine in 1966.” His efforts changed the trajectory of virus and cancer research (Medical Daily).

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Scientists Ignored Mendel’s Genetic Inheritance Work

Scientists initially ignored Gregor Mendel’s work on genetic inheritance. He discovered that genes come in pairs, and we inherit one from each parent. Fellow scientists struggled to understand him and his theories. Attempts to replicate his work failed. He originally experimented on pea plants but failed to replicate it on other, more complex plants like hawkweed. Scientists overlooked his work. Sixteen years after Mendel’s death, scientists discovered and replicated his work. If Charles Darwin had a copy of his paper, the connection between evolution and natural selection would’ve been made much sooner (Technology Networks).

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Barry Marshall Was Called Crazy Over His Theory On Stomach Ulcers

A stomach ulcer is a sore that causes a burning pain in the middle of your stomach. Stomach acid damages the lining of your stomach, which then results in a sore. Originally, people believed stress caused stomach ulcers. But it turns out that bacteria causes them, thanks to a discovery made by Barry Marshall. He conducted biopsies of ulcer patients in 1981 and theorized that antibiotics could treat ulcers. At the time, people called him crazy and refused to believe him because he couldn’t reproduce the results in lab mice. To try and prove his point, he drank Helicobacter bacteria taken from his ulcer patients to prove to everyone that this bacteria could cause ulcers in an otherwise healthy person. After developing gastritis a few days later, which is the precursor to ulcers, a biopsy of his gut showed that bacteria caused the ulcers. Stomach cancer disappeared and ulcers are now treated with antibiotics. He and Robin Warren won the Nobel Prize in physiology for this discovery (Nobel Prize).

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Computerphobia Was A Thing

Charles Babbage invented the first computer in the 1800s. But scientists didn’t build it until the 1990s. Just like most of us fear the development of AI and robots, people used to fear computers. They thought they would take over, and believed it was a crazy concept. Computers are something most of us use every single day. There’s nothing to fear, but that’s not what they believed in the 1990s. A book published in 1996, titled Women and Computers, claimed women were afflicted with computerphobia. Computerphobia is described as, “these can take such forms as fear of physically touching the computer or of damaging it and what’s inside it, a reluctance to read or talk about computers, feeling threatened by those who do know something about them, feeling that you can be replaced by a machine, become a slave to it, or feeling aggressive towards computers.” Even though computers are easy to use now, it wasn’t always like this. If only they could see what we’re using nowadays. They’d run far, far away (The Atlantic).

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Most Doctors Thought Washing Your Hands Before Procedures To Be Ridiculous

It’s crazy to think that people didn’t wash their hands with antiseptic before delivering babies, considering we now wash our hands at any given moment. In the 1840s, mortality rates for women at hospitals ranged from 25% to 30%. That’s high, considering more than a quarter of births were fatal. Ignaz Semmelweis wanted to help solve this problem. Patients treated by students coming directly from the mortuary dissecting room had higher infection rates. He had them wash their hands in a chlorinated lime solution before the examination, which lowered the mortality rate drastically. It was the first proof doctors had that germs caused these deaths. Still, everyone believed he was crazy, and the board dismissed him from his position. After this, he couldn’t even secure a teaching job. It wasn’t until two decades later that he was recognized for his work (Global Hand Washing).

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Giordan Bruno Was Accused Of Heresy

The Catholic Church accused Giordano Bruno of heresy because of his claims about the universe. Bruno claimed that stars were not only points of light, but there was a possibility they were suns with their planets. It was even possible those planets could host life, thus hinting at the existence of aliens. The Catholic Church burned him alive and called him crazy. Even though not all of his ideas were true, he was right about the size of the universe and that stars are suns, with their planets. Now, we just need proof that aliens exist, and it would prove every single one of his ideas true (Scientific American).

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The Anti-Vaxxers Of the 19th Century

We call modern-day people against vaccines anti-vaxxers. In the 1800s, we called them antivaccinationists. They were similar to the anti-vaxxers and were against immunization laws. In the 1870s, there was a smallpox outbreak that led to the smallpox vaccine. It works to prevent smallpox in 95% of people vaccinated. But it received a lot of backlash, and it elicited a response from two Anti-Vaccine Leagues, calling the vaccines crazy and unnecessary. This is something that still pops up in our history, especially with the COVID vaccine. But, medically speaking, most vaccines work against the virus and prevent the person from getting sick and spreading the virus (HHS).

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People Didn’t Believe Cholera Spread Through Tainted Water

In the late 1800s, doctors in Europe believed the miasma theory, that toxic air caused diseases like cholera. They wouldn’t have any other explanation, so when John Snow tried to counteract these findings, they called him crazy. He tried to convince the community of London at large that dirty water caused cholera. In August 1854, there was a breakout of cholera. Snow was able to trace the outbreak to a water pump on Broad Street, but it took some convincing. Once the council believed him, they disabled the pump and the outbreak stopped. But even though they knew the truth of cholera, it still took the city of London years to change its drainage system. Eventually, the change in sewage systems also helped prevent typhoid, another water-borne illness (NCBI).

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People Believed Coffee Was Evil

During nighttime devotions, the Sufi Muslims used coffee for its caffeine effects. Let’s thank them for our daily morning jitters. Though they aren’t specifically science figures, they played a huge role in coffee’s discovery. Later on, the Middle East caught on. It seemed like a miracle drug, and people experienced a clearer mind, ideas, and discussions. But in the 1500s, many people shunned the idea of coffee and thought it was a crazy thing to drink. They even called it the drink of the Devil. They also believed it induced a sort of drunkenness and believed coffee houses were causing diseases. Apparently, “coffee, like alcohol, has a long history of prohibition, attracting fear and suspicion and religious disquiet and hypocrisy. Had the zealots (of all religions) got their way then there would not be very many coffee houses open today.” Since then, we’ve come a long way, but it took some time (History Extra).

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Nobody Believed This Theory Of Quarks

A quark is an elementary particle and a constituent of matter. George Zweig, a theoretical physicist, came up with the theory of quarks. At the same time, he had to defend his Ph.D. thesis and rival Murray Gell-Mann. Scientists rejected his theory, and he lost to his rival Gell-Mann, who also went on to receive a Nobel Prize in Physics. Gell-Mann proposed the same theory, but scientists rejected Zweig because he was a young graduate student and was not well-known. Years later, the theory was adopted and he was given credit for discovering the Theory of Quarks (Britannica).

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Darwin Was Labeled As Crazy For His Theories

Back then, theories created by Charles Darwin were too outlandish for the world to handle in his book Origin of Species. Now, his theories are in every textbook and are studied by psychology students around the world. Actually, it’s likely you studied him in your fourth grade science class. He instigated a religious outcry that fought against evolution and turned that into religious resistance. Many people called him crazy and truly believed he suffered from an array of mental illnesses, caused by parasites picked up during his travels around the world (Bored Panda)

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Yudkin Tried To Warn The Public About Too Much Sugar Consumption

Nowadays, we’re well aware of the horrible effects of sugar. Eating a ton of sugar increases your risk for heart disease, diabetes, tooth decay, and stroke. That’s a whole host of issues that come from sugar, and people never believed that. There’s a reason they say not to drink Coca-Cola on a daily basis. In 1957, scientist John Yudkin tried to warn the general public about the detrimental effects of sugar, but he was called crazy. He tried to link sugar to obesity and heart attacks, but only until recently, he was not believed. In a book called Pure, White, and Deadly, Yudkin said, “if only a small fraction of what we know about the effects of sugar were to be revealed about any other material used as a food additive,” wrote Yudkin, “that material would promptly be banned.” He died in 1995 as a forgotten, lonely man who no one believed up until recently (The Guardian).

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Boltzmann’s Formula

In 1872, Ludwig Boltzmann developed a formula to explain and “study the statistical behavior of the thermodynamic system which is not in a state of equilibrium.” Many European scientists did not believe Boltzmann, and as a result, rejected all of his findings. His colleagues called him crazy because they could not grasp the nature of his formula. Now, his formula is widely used around the world and thermodynamics has fully integrated his formula into their work. While it may sound confusing to the majority of us who do not study thermodynamics, we unknowingly use it, as it relates to temperature and energy (Byjus).

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Alfred Wegener Was Ridiculed For His Theory On Pangaea

Do you remember learning about Pangea in science class, the single continent that eventually broke apart? That idea was originally rejected. In 1910, Alfred Wegener, a German meteorologist developed a theory about the coastlines of South America and western Africa. Geologically, they’re very similar, and he wanted to figure out why. He imagined a continent, now known as Pangaea, that broke apart and drifted into modern-day continents. With the discoveries made nowadays, it makes a lot of sense. In 1915, he published his book, but the public ignored it. No one believed his wild claims and instead other scientists scoffed and called him crazy. His theories led to more recent theories of plate tectonics, where the continents moved much slower than he imagined, which was introduced in the 1960s (Live Science).

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People Didn’t Believe Rachel Carson And Her Warnings About DDT

DDT, a synthetic insecticide, is used to keep insects away from crops. Unfortunately, studies have shown that DDT causes hormonal imbalances. Rachel Carson was one of the first people to discover the harmful effects of DDT when she found it weakens the shells of bird eggs. She also found it was responsible for contributing to the decline in the bald eagle population. With her discoveries in the 1970s, she published a book called Silent Spring detailing her research, but received a lot of backlash and was called crazy for her discoveries. She was exposed to the harmful effects of the chemical and, eventually, caused a domino effect that banned DDT (New Republic).

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Nobody Believed The Wright Brothers Would Achieve Flight

The Wright Brothers flew the first airplane in 1903, and the flight lasted a mere 12 seconds. Scientists called the Wright Brothers crazy, and they received a lot of backlash. Other scientists believed that airplanes were scientific toys and had no military value. It wasn’t until eight years later that the first seaplane made its trip across the Atlantic Ocean from Portugal. A Parisian magazine expressed their skepticism and said, “the Wrights have flown or they have not flown. They possess a machine or they do not possess one. They are in fact either fliers or liars. It is difficult to fly… It is easy to say, ‘We have flown.'” Their first several flights failed, but eventually, their success took off. Our lives would be a lot more different if it weren’t for the Wright Brothers (AFR).

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Dr. Atkins’ Diet Theories

Dr. Atkins is the author of The New Diet Revolution. When it first reached shelves around the world, society ridiculed him for his findings and for suggesting that refined sugar, flour, and starch are bad for your health. He also suggested that these carbohydrates caused the glycemic index to skyrocket and then plummet, which leads to fatigue and weight gain. He suggest people not eat these carbs, and when people following his diet died, the community thought they died because of his diet, which is untrue. His research led to keto-acidosis. But scientists stole his research and labeled it as The Paleo Diet, all based on his work. The keto and paleo diets follow strict rules regarding carbohydrates. If you follow the diet, you need to cut out all complex carbs, like bread, pasta, potatoes, and fruit. This helps your body reach a state of ketosis, which means you’re more efficiently burning fat for energy instead of glucose. In this state, you’ll reach more mental clarity, a higher metabolic rate, and weight loss. While it sounds ideal, it’s a strict diet that may feel difficult to follow (Cleveland Clinic).

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