People Who Were Vilified In Their Time But Were Proven Right In The End
Reddit user fuzzycuffs asked: 'Who was vilified in their time but in hindsight was completely right?'
We've all heard of Thomas Edison's process of inventing the lightbulb and the Wright Brothers' many attempts at inventing the first flyable airplane. We've even heard of the ridicule they heard of their ahead-of-their-time ideas.
But there are so many other examples of major scientific findings that were heavily argued against when they were first presented.
Redditor fuzzycuffs asked:
"Who was vilified in their time but in hindsight was completely right?"
Lead Contamination
"Doctor Clair Cameron Patterson not only discovered the true age of the Earth with his research in Lead-dating, but during this process, he accidentally discovered the dangers of lead contamination."
"Then he went, 'Wait, we’re putting this s**t in gasoline, cans, paint, etc.' He then began campaigning against lead in everyday products. In particular, he targeted the gasoline industry."
"You can imagine how that went in the courtroom. He was vilified, excluded, and slandered but kept pushing for lead to be removed from gasoline."
"It took decades, but obviously, lead was removed from gasoline almost entirely by 1990."
- honeybeebryce
The Importance of Scrubbing Out
"Joseph Lister, one of the first doctors to publicly endorse germ theory and recommend disinfection."
"At the time, surgeons would literally move from an amputation to an autopsy to the delivery room, using the same tools often without even cleaning the gore from their hands and clothes."
"When Lister recommended comprehensive disinfection between procedures, nearly the whole British medical community laughed at him. He spent years as a pariah gathering data from his own practice until he could finally prove beyond a shadow of a doubt that his methods reduced post-operation infection by a staggering rate."
"Now he's known as 'the father of modern surgery.'"
- SirKedyn
The Existence of Pangaea
"The guy who came up with the theory of Pangaea and continental drift."
- LABARATI
"Alfred Wegener. Not only that, we now have theories that Pangea was only one of the many supercontinents that have existed throughout the eons: Nuna, Rodinia, Pannotia..."
- Lihkhun
The Truth Behind Ulcers
"Barry Marshall (and also Robin Warren his co-researcher)."
"Forever, the cause of peptic ulcers was believed to be stress, spicy food, and too much acid production. They believed it was actually of bacterial origin."
"No one believed them, they were ridiculed because the belief was that bacteria couldn't survive in the acidic environment of the stomach."
"Not until Barry took a cocktail of H. pylori bacteria, which caused him to have massive inflammation of the stomach which was found to be colonized with the bacteria, but a course of antibiotics later and it was gone."
"One Nobel prize later and now the treatment of peptic ulcers is turned on its head, and instead of months or years of discomfort it can often be sorted with a week or two courses of antibiotics."
- Djiinjja-Ninja
Unalive Infectious Diseases
"Stanley Prusiner. Everyone who was anyone in science knew that proteins couldn't be an infectious agent. They weren't even alive!"
"He suffered so much mockery and skepticism... until the mad cow disease, and kuru etc., were found to be precisely what he had described."
- Common-Wish-2227
Medical Cross-Contamination
"Ignaz Semmelweis. The world didn’t know about germs yet, but he saw that way less women were dying from childbirth when midwives attended the births than when doctors did (doctors were coming from autopsies and wrecking women’s s**t)."
"Ignaz suggested they start washing their hands, and people lost their f**king minds. Doctors ridiculed him and everyone hated him. He had a 'nervous breakdown,' was committed to an insane asylum, beaten by the guards, and died from a gangrenous wound as a result of the beating."
- AhemExcuseMeSir
Sports and Steroids
"The journalists who maintained Lance Armstrong was doping when he was winning the Tour de France. I remember they were mocked because they admittedly went to extremes hunting for evidence. I remember reports of them sifting through Armstrong's trash."
"Lance Armstrong was a great story, a testicular cancer survivor who beat the disease and went on to set the record for most Tour de France victories (was it 7?). He was untouchable. Anyone contesting he was cheating was shamed."
"I remember the journalists investigating him were mostly French, so they were dismissed because they were sour that an American was breaking the Tour de France records. I remember other Tour winners such as Greg Le Mond and Floyd Landis also contesting that Armstrong was cheating, and both being silenced/shamed."
"Landis had tested positive himself for doping so he wasn't considered a reliable source. I remember with Le Mond they dug into his history and brought up child abuse he suffered as a result of him making claims against Armstrong."
"Turns out they were all right."
- SultanofShiraz
Tragic Genetic Defect
"Patricia Stallings comes to mind."
"She was convicted of poisoning her first child. She gave birth again in prison, the kid got taken away, and the kid also died."
"Instead of poisoning, it has since been found it was a genetic defect that had similar effects as poisoning with antifreeze."
- Wisely_0904
Radical Equality
"One of the lesser-known ones is Hellen Keller. Her story of overcoming her disabilities as a young woman was often taught to children, but her adult life was largely excluded because of her 'radical' ideas at the time which involved pushing for Black rights, anti-lynching laws, early support of birth control, supporting liberal socialism, and she even co-founded the American Civil Liberties Union."
- ObeseMorese
Overly Sweet Food
"John Yudkin was a food scientist who tried hard to push the idea that sugar caused heart disease and obesity amongst other conditions. He suggested a low-carb diet for weight loss in 1958."
"The sugar industry paid scientists like Ansel Keys and D. Mark Hegsted to downplay this connection and suggest that dietary fat caused obesity and heart disease. Massive lobbying helped pro-sugar scientists to become advisors to the government and officially suggest a low-fat diet to prevent heart disease."
"Taking fat out of food makes it taste bad, so what do they add? More sugar, causing the food to be unhealthier. The demonizing of fat lasted well into the 2000s and often still persists to this day."
- Fallenangel152
Copernicus Called
"Nicolaus Copernicus theorized that the planets actually circled the sun instead of the other way around. The church initially accepted heliocentricacy but banned his views in the 1600s."
- buckmaster86
"He will forever be remembered for setting up one of my favorite insults of all time: 'Copernicus called. It turns out you're not the center of the universe.'"
- GullibleToe_9909
Unfiltered Water
"John Snow. He tried to remove the handle of a water pump in London that was drawing its water downstream from a sewage pipe. People who drew water from the pump caught cholera."
- PsychologyStock8353
No Nuclear Ruin
"Stanislav Petrov. More people need to know his name, he literally, like quite literally saved the world."
"He saved the world from nuclear ruin, simply because he was stubborn and refused to believe the computing error. He went against his position orders and was consequently sacked by the USSR and lived an isolated life. Not necessarily vilified by all, but vilified by the USSR and ignored by the West. It put some respect on his name."
"And he didn't even win a Nobel peace prize, died in 2017. I recommend watching 'Stanislav Petrov, the man who saved the world.'"
- Weebla
Reluctant Darwinism
"Charles Darwin. There’s a whole book on how scared he was to publish his work because he knew he’d be hated for it. The Reluctant Mr. Darwin by David Quammen."
- catmandude123
Too Soon, But Also Not
"The Deep-sea exploration community warning OceanGate against ocean tourism. OceanGate basically told them to mind their business."
- redman9000
As painful as many of these revelations are, this whole series is a great reminder of the fact that we, as individuals and as a society and as a global community, will never know everything.
We'll never stop learning, and sometimes, no matter how extreme the consequences, we will be wrong.
Many of us find scientific facts fascinating, and for good reason, but like all subjects, there are aspects of scientific study that are positively disturbing and can keep us up late at night.
When asked, Reddit of course had an endless supply of factoids to haunt their fellow Redditors.
Redditor The_D1ngb4t asked:
"What scientific fact scares the absolute s**t out of you?"
The Carrington Event
"I don’t remember what it was called, but there was an event in the 1800s caused by solar activity where telegraphs operated on their own without power and I think caused minor damage."
"Should such a solar event happen again, it would destroy all of our internet network capabilities and other electrical gear. Anyone know what I’m referring to?"
"Edited to Add: The Carrington Event."
- 123eyecansee
Atomic Bomb
"When the atom bomb was being created, the leading scientists associated with the project at the time had to calculate the flammability of the Earth's atmosphere in order to ensure that detonating the bomb would not cause the atmosphere to combust."
"At the time when the first atom bomb was detonated, these scientists still had not answered this question, meaning that we legitimately just crossed our fingers and hoped we wouldn't set the f**king planet on fire. Humans are stupid."
- Otherwise-Win7936
Outer Space
"Space just in general. Or that bit about the Higgs Field not being in true equilibrium and that returning to it would break everything as we know it."
- SEND_ME_UR_TINY
Sneaky Cancer
"The fact that your body can have advancing cancer and you wouldn’t know it sometimes. My father-in-law's brother was walking through his kitchen and he fainted and hit his head on the counter. He was rushed to the hospital and they ran tests."
"He had stage four pancreatic cancer and his body was already in the endgame. He was dead within two months of diagnosis. That shit terrifies me and it can happen to anyone."
- bigpapahugetim3
"Happened to my five-year-old daughter. For a week she had a nose bleed on and off that the doctors weren't concerned about since kids get nose bleeds for various reasons."
"Then she collapsed a week later and was gone three hours after getting to the hospital. She had leukemia. I have two other children and I'm terrified something could happen to them too."
- mamadrama91
Alzheimer's Disease
"Scientific literature’s conclusion on Alzheimer’s disease and other neurodegenerative diseases, in general, is that the diseases start decades before the first obvious symptoms and that we need to treat them at this stage."
"When you exhibit obvious symptoms, it’s too late, your brain is already mush."
"If you get diagnosed with Alzheimer’s at 65, you had the disease since your early 40s at least. And you experienced very mild symptoms but didn’t notice them. And your brain fought like hell to compensate for the deficit."
"When you get diagnosed, your brain is already very severely damaged and will never recover from the deficit."
- Alkuna
The Suddenness of It
"The fact that we can just get a blood clot and die and not realize anything was up. The human body has so many ways of just suddenly dying and it's terrifying."
- a-packet-of-noodles
A Distinct Possibility
"I'm not afraid of suddenly dying. I'm afraid of suddenly being severely disabled."
- phunkydroid
"My cousin was always riding horses. She was very lucky to have the access to them that she did. She was riding with a less experienced friend. The friend’s horse took off and she gave chase to try and save her friend."
"Whatever happened, she took a fall and was paralyzed when she was maybe 22 or 23 years old and lived in a facility for the next 12 years until she died a very early death."
"She couldn’t speak or communicate hardly. Just 12 years of hardship. She had to rediscover and grieve her father's death all over again, not to mention grieve her own life. I wouldn’t wish it on anyone."
- cranwitch
The Boogeyman of Medicine
"Prion diseases exist."
- hiboJBob
"From my understanding of CJD, or Creutzfeldt-Jakob Disease (it's the boogeyman of my career field), it's something you contract, but it takes about 10 years for any symptoms to appear, and either way it's impossible to do anything about. So eerie, honestly."
- s00perball
"Creutzfeldt-Jakob Disease."
"It's genetic. You won't know that you have it. When you know that you have it, there is zero recourse. It will eat holes in your brain and you'll die."
"That, and Fatal Familial Insomnia, also genetic. One of your parents woke up one day and couldn't fall back asleep until they died, having suffered rapidly progressing neural degeneration."
"And it tends to set in around mid-life, so you spend every day waking up knowing it might be the last time. You find it hard to build relationships and have a family because you know it's not a matter of if, only when. But you know you're not gonna see your golden years."
- __garlic__
No Floating Here
"You can get non-buoyant water."
"In wastewater treatment plants, they aerate the water so the bacteria breaking down the poo has plenty of oxygen. Due to the introduced air, the water density is low enough that a human body (or most any object that would normally float) will go straight to the bottom."
- MustNotSay
Poor Yeller
"Rabies. You can have it and never know until it decides it's time. And then you'll die terribly."
- PMyourTastefulN**es
A Reality
"That one day I will die. I don't know why, but sometimes at night, as I'm falling asleep, I suddenly think of this and it freaks me out. Like, start feeling super anxious."
- nastybacon
"Just know that once you die, you could either stop existing, which isnt painful, or you could discover a whole different world."
- InfernoSlayer2
Why Can't We See or Touch It? ...Or Can We?
"The metaphysical aspect of consciousness."
"Where is consciousness? What is it? When does it really end? Where does it go when we die? When we sleep? How does it occupy our entire being without being physically present?"
"We are quite literally the universe experiencing itself, in a fragile little bubble on a mote of dust in a sunbeam."
"And yet, what exactly are we?"
"That’s the sort of question that keeps me up at night. I don’t fear death, I don’t fear world annihilation, but I am deeply unsettled by the mere experience of being aware."
- Bloorajah
How Terrible
"Methanol contains very little carbon, so when it burns, it's basically invisible."
"Can you imagine death by burning alive, and no one can see the flames, so they can't put them out?"
- boxofmarshmallows
C. Difficile Infection
"Every time you use an antibiotic, even for something mild like strep throat or bronchitis or traveler’s diarrhea, you technically could get C. Difficile infection from your wiped out gut flora. And that could end up a lingering, resistant infection, that leads to colectomy or fecal transplant."
"Antibiotics are scary. And there’s a reason doctors only want to prescribe them if absolutely needed."
- TheSunscreenLife
Infinite Darkness
"Less 'scary' and more 'mind-numbingly depressing' is the Dark Era of the universe."
"When all the star fuel is gone (and it will be) and all the white dwarves have gone cold and dark (and they will) and all the black holes have evaporated away into elementary particles (and they will), the universe will be a cold, dark place..."
"Forever."
- Imissyourgirlfriend2
As fascinating as science is, there are some truly dark, troubling corners that we can linger over for too long.
While it's good to be knowledgeable of these possibilities, we need to remember the lighter aspects of life, as well.
The Most Atrocious Things People Have Done In The Name Of Science
When it comes to scientific advancements, it's all about trial and error.
You form a hypothesis, test your hypothesis, and come to a conclusion.
Testing your hypothesis is known as an experiment. Sometimes, experiments are completely safe and ethical, like the tests Isaac Newton ran as he discovered the Laws of Motion. However, sometimes, the experiments were horrific. The subjects used were treated cruelly, and the effects lasted a lifetime, or even longer.
Science, in and of itself, is great, but sometimes, people have committed some horrible atrocities in the name of science that we just can't get behind.
One thing I learned is that I know a lot less about the way scientists went about their research than I thought I did. Luckily for me and the rest of the uninformed, Redditors are ready to share the atrocities people have done in the name of science.
It all started when Redditor itcamefromtheimgur asked:
"What are some of the most atrocious things done in the name of science?"
Aquamen
"You don't wanna know how we learned humans are 60% water."
– LR-II
"Masochistic curiosity here, tell me."
– odd_neighbour
"Well thanks to the Japanese we know exactly how much water is in the human body."
– Angel_OfSolitude
First Aid
"I had a pair of matching blisters, one on each foot, both in the same location and of the same size."
"I tore one motherf*cker straight off to form a scab, whilst leaving the other alone."
"Hypothesis - A scab will heal faster and be less painful."
"Conclusion - I was so f*cking wrong."
– odd_neighbour
It's A Wonder They're Still Man's Best Friend
"I don't remember who but I think it was in the 30s or 40s when a scientist beheaded dogs and kept their heads alive. It's heartbreaking to watch the footage"
"Edit: I looked it up, it was Sergei Briuk-honenko and he was a soviet physician"
– _ManWhoSoldTheWorld_
"There was an American doctor that did that, too. In my opinion, the worst experiment I heard he did was transplant the brain of a dog to the abdomen of another dog. The transplanted brain would have remained conscience, but would have had no senses of any kind yet went on living for a full week."
– Yeeteth_thy_baby
Horrific
"The history of gynecology is unbelievably grim. Painful experiments on black women without any pain relief. Ugh people are awful sometimes."
– juliennethiscarrot
Umm...What?
"They used to operate on animals with no anesthetic because "they felt no pain". This one baffles me, how the hell can you have been around animals for any length of time and not see one yelp or jump because they hurt themselves? The "divine right" attitude of humans is sickening. Basically because in their opinion animals had no souls they couldn't fell pain. Wacked!"
– Weazerdogg
"They also thought black people couldn't feel pain and they used to say babies couldn't feel pain until the late 80s/early 90s. They used to do surgery on babies without anesthetic in the 80s because they won't remember it (consciously, but it causes PTSD)"
– crazyjka*s
Make Me Sick
"The experiments done on enslaved peoples in the US"
"The Tuskegee Syphilis Study"
– LexiiConn
"It wasn't just during slavery. The myth that black people either didn't feel pain, or felt a far reduced degree of pain led to some pretty horrible medical practices. Since they didn't realistically have access to healthcare for a very long time, doctors would get them to sign off on sh*t they wanted to do, often for the first time, in exchange for not having to pay for the treatment. It's horrifying."
– GreatTragedy
Some School
"The Lung Association took Canadian aboriginal kids from their parents to a school that was basically a lab to do experiments on the kids for TB. Those that died were buried and their parents were never notified. Met a gentleman who’d survived that and only had half a lung left because they’d operated on him."
– tangcameo
Ignorance May Actually Be Bliss
The Manhattan Project. Did we really have to see what happens when we split an atom? Like, guys, for real, it's not fun living knowing that the end of the world could come at any moment, you have any idea what that sh*t does to your mental health? Damn you, Oppenheimer."
– GoblinGuy3
Unit 731
"Unit 731 or Manshu Detachment 731.(1937–1945)."
"Unit 731 was responsible for some of the most notorious war crimes committed by the Japanese armed forces. It routinely conducted tests on people who were dehumanized and internally referred to as "logs". Experiments included disease injections, controlled dehydration, hypobaric chamber experiments, biological weapons testing, vivisection, amputation, and standard weapons testing. Victims included kidnapped men, women (including pregnant women) and children. The victims came from different nationalities, with the majority being Chinese and a significant minority being Russian. Additionally, Unit 731 produced biological weapons that were used in areas of China not occupied by Japanese forces, which included Chinese cities and towns, water sources, and fields. Estimates of those killed by Unit 731 and its related programs range up to half a million people, and none of the inmates survived."
– fellowcrft
Human Studies
"WW2 experiments on prisoners.. done by Mengele and Japanese nazis."
"Burning people, poisoning people, putting people in extreme cold water. They would often experiment on twins, one would be left and nothing done to him, he was the control and other would be tortured in different ways and then they would kill both and dissect to see how body reacted."
– RoronoaLuffyZoro
This Is Awful
"John B Calhoun set about creating a series of experiments that would essentially cater to every need of rodents, and then track the effect on the population over time. The most infamous of the experiments was named, quite dramatically, Universe 25."
"In this study, he took four breeding pairs of mice and placed them inside a "utopia". The environment was designed to eliminate problems that would lead to mortality in the wild. They could access limitless food via 16 food hoppers, accessed via tunnels, which would feed up to 25 mice at a time, as well as water bottles just above. Nesting material was provided. The weather was kept at 68°F (20°C), which for those of you who aren't mice is the perfect mouse temperature. The mice were chosen for their health, obtained from the National Institutes of Health breeding colony. Extreme precautions were taken to stop any disease from entering the universe."
"As well as this, no predators were present in the utopia, which sort of stands to reason. It's not often something is described as a "utopia, but also there were lions there picking us all off one by one.""
"The experiment began, and as you'd expect, the mice used the time that would usually be wasted in foraging for food and shelter for having excessive amounts of sexual intercourse. About every 55 days, the population doubled as the mice filled the most desirable space within the pen, where access to the food tunnels was of ease."
"When the population hit 620, that slowed to doubling around every 145 days, as the mouse society began to hit problems. The mice split off into groups, and those that could not find a role in these groups found themselves with nowhere to go."
""In the normal course of events in a natural ecological setting somewhat more young survive to maturity than are necessary to replace their dying or senescent established associates," Calhoun wrote in 1972. "The excess that find no social niches emigrate.""
"Here, the "excess" could not emigrate, for there was nowhere else to go. The mice that found themself with no social role to fill – there are only so many head mouse roles, and the utopia was in no need of a Ratatouille-esque chef – became isolated."
""Males who failed withdrew physically and psychologically; they became very inactive and aggregated in large pools near the center of the floor of the universe. From this point on they no longer initiated interaction with their established associates, nor did their behavior elicit attack by territorial males," read the paper. "Even so, they became characterized by many wounds and much scar tissue as a result of attacks by other withdrawn males.""
"The withdrawn males would not respond during attacks, lying there immobile. Later on, they would attack others in the same pattern. The female counterparts of these isolated males withdrew as well. Some mice spent their days preening themselves, shunning mating, and never engaging in fighting. Due to this they had excellent fur coats, and were dubbed, somewhat disconcertingly, the "beautiful ones.""
"The breakdown of usual mouse behavior wasn't just limited to the outsiders. The "alpha male" mice became extremely aggressive, attacking others with no motivation or gain for themselves. Violent encounters sometimes ended in mouse-on-mouse cannibalism."
– herobrineminecraftk
A Questionable Procedure
"Lobotomies"
– QualityKoalaTeacher
"Danvers Asylum in massachusetts had a wing just for experiments with children using both lobotomies and electro-shock."
– SpamFriedMice
What We Don't Know
"To the ppl reading the comments, keep in mind they told the public all of thesse, now imagine what they don't tell us"
– TTV_Potato_the_3rd
That's a scary thought!
Do you have any atrocities to add? Let us know in the comments.
Science. It runs our lives and is advancing every day, almost faster than we can keep track of it. The relentless pursuit of progress spans all disciplines, and thankfully there are people who follow the latest and greatest.
Flea_Shooter asked: What are some recent scientific breakthroughs/discoveries that aren't getting enough attention?
Submissions have been edited for clarity, context, and profanity.
What's your favorite scienfitific discovery?