10 Famous Science Predictions that Failed to Come True

In The Hitchhiker's Guide to the Galaxy the super computer Deep Thought predicts that the number "42" is the ultimate answer and key to the Universe. Oddly enough a team of Australian astrophyicists have concluded that our galaxy weighs three times 10 to the power of 42 kilograms - a number written as 3 followed by 42 zeroes.

Here are ten predictions that Earth-bound experts made that didn't come true complied by Anthony Watts:

1. “Telltale signs are everywhere —from the unexpected persistence and thickness of pack ice in the waters around Iceland to the southward migration of a warmth-loving creature like the armadillo from the Midwest. Since the 1940s the mean global temperature has dropped about 2.7° F.” — Climatologist George J. Kukla of Columbia University in Time Magazine’s June 24th, 1975 article Another Ice Age?

2. “Stomach ulcers are caused by stress” — accepted medical diagnosis, until Dr. Marshall proved that H. pylori caused gastric inflammation by deliberately infecting himself with the bacterium.

3. “If I had thought about it, I wouldn’t have done the experiment. The literature was full of examples that said you can’t do this.” — Spencer Silver on the work that led to the unique adhesives for 3-M “Post-It” Notepads.

4. “Space travel is bunk.” — Sir Harold Spencer Jones, Astronomer Royal of the UK, 1957 (two weeks later Sputnik orbited the Earth).

5. “There is not the slightest indication that nuclear energy will ever be obtainable. It would mean that the atom would have to be shattered at will.” — Albert Einstein, 1932

6. “Radio has no future. Heavier-than-air flying machines are impossible. X-rays will prove to be a hoax.” — William Thomson, Lord Kelvin, British scientist, 1899.

7. “I think there is a world market for maybe five computers.” — Thomas Watson, chairman of IBM, 1943

8. “That virus is a pussycat.” — Dr. Peter Duesberg, molecular-biology professor at U.C. Berkeley, on HIV, 1988

9. “The bomb will never go off. I speak as an expert in explosives.” — Admiral William Leahy, U.S. Atomic Bomb Project

10. “The earth’s crust does not move”- 19th through early 20th century accepted geological science. See Plate Tectonics

Posted by Casey Kazan.

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Source:

Watts Up With That

Comments

[remi]

medical psychology... #2

[Cameron]

Failed to come true??

#1 is coming true as I type this.

#2 is not a prediction, it was the best guess until science proved it wrong.

#3 is not a prediction either.

#5 is not a prediction, it's an accurate statement given the level of scientific knowledge in the 1930's.

This was a cute idea for an article, but it could have used a little bit of research, especially considering this is a science web site.

[CleverSam]

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[Scopus]

Number 5 was indeed a prediction; the level of knowledge at the time is inconsequential.