# Famous Scientists with Outlandish Theories **URL:** \ **Category:** Factual Questions\ **Created:** [December 8, 2006, 5:28pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/famous-scientists-with-outlandish-theories/383368 "2006-12-08T17:28:54Z")\ **Posts on this page:** 20\ **Page:** 1
**Author:** ![SLCsteve](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/s/d78d45/32.png) [@SLCsteve](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/SLCsteve)\ **Post date:** [December 8, 2006, 5:28pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/famous-scientists-with-outlandish-theories/383368/1 "2006-12-08T17:28:54Z")
Hello, I am looking for a quick example of a famous scientist who had one or more outlandish theories. I have a friend who is trying to call some research into disrepute not by criticizing the specific research but instead by criticizing some of the researchers’ more outlandish theories. I know that famous, legitimate scientists also had some strange theories–I just can’t think of a good example. Thanks! ---
**Author:** ![JCorre](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/j/3da27b/32.png) [@JCorre](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/JCorre)\ **Post date:** [December 8, 2006, 5:30pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/famous-scientists-with-outlandish-theories/383368/2 "2006-12-08T17:30:33Z")
[Tesla?](http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Nikola_Tesla) ---
**Author:** ![Grey](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/g/b782af/32.png) [@Grey](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Grey)\ **Post date:** [December 8, 2006, 5:46pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/famous-scientists-with-outlandish-theories/383368/3 "2006-12-08T17:46:14Z")
Let me get this straight, your friend has no interest in attacking the argument but would rather attack the presenter? The fancy name would be Ad Hominem and it’s normally considered a logical fallacy. Sir Fred Hoyle’s idea of viruses falling from space might be a weird enough idea that hasn’t been born out. ---
**Author:** ![BrainGlutton](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/b/82dd89/32.png) [@BrainGlutton](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/BrainGlutton)\ **Post date:** [December 8, 2006, 5:51pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/famous-scientists-with-outlandish-theories/383368/4 "2006-12-08T17:51:54Z")
[Sigmund Freud](http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Sigmund_Freud) was certainly a seminal figure in the development of psychology as a science, but many of his theories are considered “outlandish” today. [Carl Jung,](http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Carl_jung) even more so. (Nowadays, shrinks seem to prefer pills to “talk therapy.”) Or were you limiting this to the natural sciences? ---
**Author:** ![ywine](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/y/49beb7/32.png) [@ywine](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/ywine)\ **Post date:** [December 8, 2006, 5:54pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/famous-scientists-with-outlandish-theories/383368/5 "2006-12-08T17:54:27Z")
I think there’s just enough of a possibility gap - with the suggestions Hoyle has made about particle size in interstellar space (a great deal the size of bacteria) - for it to deserve some credence. If you think about the scale of the arena on Earth for molecular “trials” to produce inheriting self-assembly there doesn’t seem to be nearly enough opportunity for that to be anything but extremely improbable. ---
**Author:** ![Little\_Nemo](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/little_nemo/32/3120_2.png) [@Little\_Nemo](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Little_Nemo)\ **Post date:** [December 8, 2006, 5:55pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/famous-scientists-with-outlandish-theories/383368/6 "2006-12-08T17:55:48Z")
Isaac Newton was a firm believer in alchemy. ---
**Author:** ![David\_Simmons](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/d/9de053/32.png) [@David\_Simmons](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/David_Simmons)\ **Post date:** [December 8, 2006, 5:57pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/famous-scientists-with-outlandish-theories/383368/7 "2006-12-08T17:57:52Z")
What theory could possibly be more outlandish than the Copenhage quantum interpretation of Niels Bohr _et al_. It’s only advantage is that it works. ---
**Author:** ![Loach](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/loach/32/350_2.png) [@Loach](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Loach)\ **Post date:** [December 8, 2006, 6:15pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/famous-scientists-with-outlandish-theories/383368/8 "2006-12-08T18:15:50Z")
Linus Pauling had theories about vitamin C which many consider to be outlandish or at least controversial. ---
**Author:** ![yabob](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/yabob/32/2821_2.png) [@yabob](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/yabob)\ **Post date:** [December 8, 2006, 6:22pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/famous-scientists-with-outlandish-theories/383368/9 "2006-12-08T18:22:50Z")
William Shockley, the co-inventor of the transistor, had views on race and eugenics that were controversial, to say the least. Shockley: > **[William Shockley](https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/William_Shockley)** > > William Bradford Shockley Jr. (February 13, 1910 – August 12, 1989) was an American inventor, physicist, and eugenicist. He was the manager of a research group at Bell Labs that included John Bardeen and Walter Brattain. The three scientists were jointly awarded the 1956 Nobel Prize in Physics for "their researches on semiconductors and their discovery of the transistor effect". > Partly as a result of Shockley's attempts to commercialize a new transistor design in the 1950s and 1960s, Californi... ---
**Author:** ![yabob](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/yabob/32/2821_2.png) [@yabob](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/yabob)\ **Post date:** [December 8, 2006, 6:35pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/famous-scientists-with-outlandish-theories/383368/10 "2006-12-08T18:35:03Z")
You might also consider Pierre Teilhard de Chardin: > **[Pierre Teilhard de Chardin](https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Pierre_Teilhard_de_Chardin)** > > Pierre Teilhard de Chardin SJ (.mw-parser-output .IPA-label-small{font-size:85%}.mw-parser-output .references .IPA-label-small,.mw-parser-output .infobox .IPA-label-small,.mw-parser-output .navbox .IPA-label-small{font-size:100%}French: \[pjɛʁ tɛjaʁ də ʃaʁdɛ̃\] (listenⓘ); 1 May 1881 – 10 April 1955) was a French Jesuit priest, scientist, paleontologist, theologian, philosopher and teacher. He was Darwinian in outlook and the author of several influential theological and philosophical books. > He t... His work in paleontology was significant enough that you have to consider him a legitimate scientist. He also spent his life attempting to reconcile science with intense religious faith and mysticism, seemingly starting from a basic assumption that such a thing was possible. Look at the critique of “The Phenomenon of Man” by Sir Peter Medawar, basically ripping him a new asshole. ---
**Author:** ![Raguleader](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/r/258eb7/32.png) [@Raguleader](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Raguleader)\ **Post date:** [December 8, 2006, 6:35pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/famous-scientists-with-outlandish-theories/383368/11 "2006-12-08T18:35:28Z")
Didn’t Copernicus have some crazy idea about the Earth revolving around the sun? I mean, hell, the nutjob got excommunicated for that one. ---
**Author:** ![yabob](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/yabob/32/2821_2.png) [@yabob](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/yabob)\ **Post date:** [December 8, 2006, 6:40pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/famous-scientists-with-outlandish-theories/383368/12 "2006-12-08T18:40:45Z")
Oh, and you might also consider John Lilly, who started out as a conventional scientist: > **[John C. Lilly](https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/John_C._Lilly)** > > John Cunningham Lilly (January 6, 1915 – September 30, 2001) was an American physician, neuroscientist, psychoanalyst, psychonaut, philosopher, writer and inventor. He was a member of a generation of counterculture scientists and thinkers that included Timothy Leary, Ram Dass, and Werner Erhard, all frequent visitors to the Lilly home. He often stirred controversy, especially among mainstream scientists. > Lilly conducted high-altitude research during World War II and later trained as a psychoan... ---
**Author:** ![Alive\_At\_Both\_Ends](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/a/73ab20/32.png) [@Alive\_At\_Both\_Ends](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Alive_At_Both_Ends)\ **Post date:** [December 8, 2006, 6:42pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/famous-scientists-with-outlandish-theories/383368/13 "2006-12-08T18:42:04Z")
William Herschel, who discovered Uranus in 1781, believed the Sun was cold and simply had a glowing upper atmosphere. ---
**Author:** ![friedo](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/f/8edcca/32.png) [@friedo](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/friedo)\ **Post date:** [December 8, 2006, 6:51pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/famous-scientists-with-outlandish-theories/383368/14 "2006-12-08T18:51:01Z")
[QUOTE=Little Nemo] Isaac Newton was a firm believer in alchemy. [/QUOTE] Newton also spent a huge portion of his later years looking for ciphers in the Bible. ---
**Author:** ![BrainGlutton](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/b/82dd89/32.png) [@BrainGlutton](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/BrainGlutton)\ **Post date:** [December 8, 2006, 6:57pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/famous-scientists-with-outlandish-theories/383368/15 "2006-12-08T18:57:01Z")
[QUOTE=yabob] Oh, and you might also consider John Lilly, who started out as a conventional scientist: > **[John C. Lilly](https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/John_C._Lilly)** > > John Cunningham Lilly (January 6, 1915 – September 30, 2001) was an American physician, neuroscientist, psychoanalyst, psychonaut, philosopher, writer, and inventor. He was a member of a group of counterculture thinkers that included Timothy Leary, Ram Dass, and Werner Erhard, all frequent visitors to the Lilly home. He often stirred controversy, especially among mainstream scientists. Lilly conducted high-altitude research during World War II and later trained as a psychoanalyst. He gained reno... [/QUOTE] As did [Timothy Leary.](http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Timothy_Leary) ---
**Author:** ![M.Meursault](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/m/b487fb/32.png) [@M.Meursault](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/M.Meursault)\ **Post date:** [December 8, 2006, 7:02pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/famous-scientists-with-outlandish-theories/383368/16 "2006-12-08T19:02:56Z")
What about Thomas Edison and his wonky theories about the after-life/the spirit world? That has to count. ---
**Author:** ![Derleth](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/d/b9e5f3/32.png) [@Derleth](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Derleth)\ **Post date:** [December 8, 2006, 7:09pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/famous-scientists-with-outlandish-theories/383368/17 "2006-12-08T19:09:12Z")
[QUOTE=SLCsteve] I have a friend who is trying to call some research into disrepute not by criticizing the specific research but instead by criticizing some of the researchers’ more outlandish theories. [/QUOTE] Anyone stupid enough to be fooled by this isn’t smart enough to argue with. ---
**Author:** ![mr.jp](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/m/48db29/32.png) [@mr.jp](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/mr.jp)\ **Post date:** [December 8, 2006, 7:11pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/famous-scientists-with-outlandish-theories/383368/18 "2006-12-08T19:11:05Z")
Aristotle thought that the purpose of the brain was to cool down the blood. ---
**Author:** ![ralph124c](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/r/8797f3/32.png) [@ralph124c](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/ralph124c)\ **Post date:** [December 8, 2006, 7:15pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/famous-scientists-with-outlandish-theories/383368/19 "2006-12-08T19:15:30Z")
Two come to mind: Wilhelm Reich: was originally a respected psychologist. totally went bonkers later. Hos “orgone” theory is one of the amusing episodes of crackpot “science”. -L. Ron Hubbard: Scientist, naval officer, and researcher. His theory of “scientology” is a real hoot-postulates that human souls/thetans have existed for 100’s of billions of years. ---
**Author:** ![ouryL](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/ouryl/32/6067_2.png) [@ouryL](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/ouryL)\ **Post date:** [December 8, 2006, 7:16pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/famous-scientists-with-outlandish-theories/383368/20 "2006-12-08T19:16:30Z")
[QUOTE=Alive At Both Ends] William Herschel, who discovered Uranus in 1781, believed the Sun was cold and simply had a glowing upper atmosphere. [/QUOTE] So the surface of the sun is either the same temperature or colder than its interior… [Next page](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/famous-scientists-with-outlandish-theories/383368.md?page=2)