A Taste of the Incredible

Often, the answer to a question is shocking, incredible, spontaneously rejected. Ignorance, more often than not, is preferred to an incredible reality, to what is supposedly impossible, outside the boundaries of logic imposed by the known.

Contributions for creating an anthology of such salient events with the names of the actors, dates of the events and a brief report of the story are invited to establish an ever incomplete list of the once unbelievable, to help its acceptance tomorrow.

Contributions for creating an anthology of such salient events with the names of the actors, dates of events and a brief report of the story are invited. Establish an ever incomplete list of the once unbelievable known, to help the acceptance of that of tomorrow. Galileo Galilei, Giordano Bruno, Alfred Lothar Wegener, Barbara McClintock, African prostitutes resisting the HIV infection. They vindicate the contention of a philosopher of old: Everything flows, nothing stands still *.

* Τὰ πάντα ῥεῖ καὶ οὐδὲν μένει Heraclitus

Unbelievable proposals

• The earth moves – Galileo (https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Galileo_Galilei)
• The number of stars is infinite – Bruno (https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Giordano_Bruno)
• The continents move – Wegener (https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Alfred_Wegener)
• Genes jump – Barbara McClintock (https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Barbara_McClintock)
• Prostitutes resisting HIV infection (http://www.sciencedirect.com/science/article/pii/0140673693930637)

Extraordinary Frauds

Outstanding examples of quaint Certainties & Frauds should be reminded. Frauds inspired by irrational thinking, convictions or hubris are instructive, may be amusing, reminding that passion may obstruct reason.  Salient examples are Lysenko’s theories and experiments; Paul Kammerer’s proof for Lamarckism; Summerlin’s painting of mice to prove successful grafts; the misappropriation of HIV discovery; the Piltdown Man’s skull hoax. Examples of unbelievable frauds that may serve as warnings.

To contribute to this topic, click Incredible Events Forum.