Scientific mythology
From RationalWiki
Scientific mythology is just like any other mythology, but it's usually about scientific discoveries or inventions. Some have a basis in fact, some are "lies to children". Mostly they can be entertaining or useful in helping science become memorable, but this doesn't make such stories true.
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[edit] Well known myths
Several apocryphal examples are presented below:
- Isaac Newton was sitting under a tree when an apple fell on his head. The action of the apple prompted him to suddenly devise his theories on gravity! While it was highly unlikely that a quick knock to the head immediately inserted classical mechanics into Newton's head, it's likely that he did observe many objects falling and this would have led him and others to ponder the nature of gravity. Newton himself only said that "[the notion of gravity] was occasioned by the fall of an apple".[1] The original account that lead to the "apple on the head" story is William Stukeley's 1752 biography of Newton.[2]
- A similar story states that Galileo climbed the Leaning Tower of Pisa to drop objects. Noting that they hit the ground at the same time regardless of their mass (an experiment famously repeated on the moon with a feather and a hammer) was one of the most important observations of gravity in action. The location of the experiment is likely to be wrong, added to only give it some extra drama and prominence. The experiment to demonstrate this is also best done, not with falling objects, but rolling objects down an incline.
- Christopher Columbus sailed across the Atlantic to prove that the Earth was round, not flat. The story is often embellished further; that it was a bet with the Queen of Spain or that his crew was mutinous, being convinced they were going to fall off the edge of the Earth. This is almost completely fabricated; the idea that prior to Columbus everyone thought the Earth was flat has no basis in reality - it is probably persistent because of the want to portray the past and the churches that ruled it as backwards and unscientific.
- Erwin Schrödinger derived his famous equation that underpins quantum mechanics while on a Christmas break with his mistress. While it's not entirely known if this is entirely true (or if he succeeded in keeping her happy while working on the maths), having two women in his life did apparently play havoc with his academic positions, including one at Oxford.
- Benjamin Franklin discovered the nature of lightning by flying a kite in a thunderstorm. Back in Franklin's day, it wasn't entirely known what lightning was, and such an experiment would have concluded the electrical nature of lightning. It is unlikely that he flew the kite as popularly described as such an act would be incredibly dangerous and Franklin was aware of this. Instead, the kite was likely to have been flown in the build up to a storm, so that charges that were building up in it could be detected before they reached the dangerous levels required for a lightning bolt to strike.
- During the development of Quantum mechanics, an apparently heated debate on the subject - or possibly one of the first lectures proposing it, possibly by Schrödinger - caused Albert Einstein to declare that "God does not play dice!" - and for Neils Bohr to respond "Don't you tell God what to do!". Although it's probably true that all these people were in a room together at some point (indeed, here they are, and Bohr and Einstein certainly debated frequently and publicly[3]) the famous quote "God does not play dice", is a paraphrase of one of Einstein's letters to Max Born: "Quantum mechanics is certainly imposing. But an inner voice tells me that it is not yet the real thing. The theory says a lot, but does not really bring us any closer to the secret of the 'old one'. I, at any rate, am convinced that He does not throw dice."[4]
- Alan Turing, one of the contenders for the title "Father of the Computer" committed suicide by taking a bite out of an apple laced with cyanide - this image of the apple is supposedly the inspiration behind the logo of Apple computers. It's not known for certain that it was the apple which contained the cyanide (it was never tested for the substance) but the famous logo lighting up thousands of Macbooks around the world is most likely a homage to Newton (see above). Although strictly this is not a story of scientific discovery, Turing's work and life was one of the most important in modern science and technology and Turing's suicide was one of the tragic results of 1950s attitudes towards his homosexuality.
[edit] Unbelievably true
There are a few stories that are, incredibly, true. These are almost invariably from more modern times where recording is slightly more reliable. Whether these will descend into the realm of myth in the coming centuries, however, is an open question.
- The original diagnosis for a gastric ulcer was stress. Robin Warren and Barry Marshall, two doctors from Australia (which probably explains everything) had a different hypothesis; that the main cause was bacterial infection. Having isolated the species responsible (Helicobacter pylori) they decided to test their hypothesis in the only ethical, and legal, manner; Marshall took a dose himself and developed the symptoms of a gastric ulcer. Their case suitably proven, the two were awarded the Nobel Prize for medicine in 2005. There is one minor myth circulating about this story although it's not officially recorded; that the anti-biotic administered didn't initially work as the bacteria buy themselves into the stomach wall and Dr Marshall had to endure the symptoms for far longer than he predicted.
- Albert Hoffman is well known as the inventor of LSD. And it is indeed true that he first experienced the effects of it accidentally - absorbing some through his fingertips - and then decided to repeat the experiment with what was later discovered to be 10 times higher than the "recommended" dose. Hoffman spent most of his career following this campaigning to get LSD legalised and accepted throughout the world.
- Roy Plunkett discovered Teflon accidentally when trying to synthesize a new refrigerant from perfluoroethylene, a gas. He and his co-worker thought they had a defective tank when no gas come out of the cylinder, when in fact it contained a white powdery solid coating its interior (the iron in the vessel acted as a catalyst for polymerisation). However, that Teflon was a "by-product of the space race" is a complete myth, probably invented as a marketing ploy.[5]
