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KypDurron t1_iqy0e54 wrote

Reply to comment by Super_Silky in TIL a German scientist named Alfred Wegener was ridiculed in 1912 for advancing the idea that the continents were adrift. Ridiculed as having “wandering pole plague.” or “Germanic pseudo­-science” and accused Wegener of toying with the evidence to spin himself into “a state of auto-intoxication." by Hot----------Dog

Except that the scientific community's response was perfectly justified. Science is supposed to reject new ideas that are presented without support. The entire point of the scientific method is to take people's hypotheses and attempt to prove them wrong.

Wegener's proposed mechanism for continental drift was the rotation of the earth, and he estimated that the continents were moving at approximately 250cm per year.

Just because part of his idea (that the continents move) was right doesn't mean that his claim should have been accepted uncritically. Making extraordinary claims that just happen to be correct - without actually explaining anything about it, or presenting sufficient evidence - doesn't make you a genius. It just makes you lucky.

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Super_Silky t1_iqy5bcs wrote

Kinda like how Gugliemo Marconi beat both Tesla and Edison to the invention of wireless telegraph tech specifically because he wasnt shackled by scientific dogma? His views on the "ether" have been soundly disproved but he got results even if his reasoning for it was deeply flawed. Its one thing to not be "accepted uncritically" but the issue is the massive ridicule being lobbed just because theories dont fit neatly into established and "accepted" paradigms.

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BarrelRoll1996 t1_iqzu03l wrote

Not sure why downvoted, at surface level his reasons were bunk but still got him a nobel prize.

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