subject: The Most Well-known Myths About Science And Scientists [print this page] Science is the instrument of cognitionScience is the instrument of cognition. It debunks the myths and explains the unexplained. Scientists always aim at finding the truth about the world. However, we often support the myths about the scientists and about the science. The so called generally known facts often turn out to be such myths.
Albert Einsteins Bad Marks
A lot of schoolchildren (and their parents) found the excuse for bad marks in the generally known fact that Albert Einstein had bad marks at school. The Times published an article that denied this myth. A famous physicist and a Nobel Prize winner Albert Einstein was a genius. He always had excellent marks at school in mathematics and natural sciences. The article says, mark 4, which Einstein got in many disciplines, is often interpreted by Americans as a D, though these two marks are not equivalent.
Thomas Edisons Invention of a Bulb
Thomas Edison is generally known as the inventor of a light bulb, but this invention is mistakenly assigned to him. He is the author of 1,093 inventions and the most prolific inventor, but he did not introduce the bulb. It was invented by Sir Humphrey Davy in 1809. A decade later Warren de la Rue improved Davys creation, using a metal helix as a heating element instead of a coal Sir Davy had used. His bulb had a shape of a tube. In 1854, a German researcher Heinrich Goebel made a bulb of modern type. Edison only found a proper material for the heating element.
Newtons Apple
The legend, that Isaac Newton discovered the gravitation law when an apple fell on his head, was invented by the great scientist himself. William Stukeley, Newtons biographer, wrote that Isaac Newton told him he had discovered gravitation while sitting under the apple-tree and watching apples fall. The famous apple fell actually near him.
