"The Worst ideas in Science"

This project involved creating a lecture on ‘The Worst Ideas in Science’ and was supervised by Dr Bill Proud and Dr Lisa-Jardine Wright. The lecture is aimed at students at GCSE level or just below but is also suitable for a general audience.

The main aims of the lecture are to show how theories can be disregarded or modified as new evidence comes to light. It also conveys that scientists could be wrong or even manage to convince themselves that they have confirmation of their hypothesis when their results are in fact inconclusive or absent. The lecture includes examples such as the development of the atomic model (demonstrated using edible models) and “phenomena” such as N-rays, as well as discussion of alchemy and the different proposed models of the solar system. The examples that were suitable for the talk were so numerous that Michael Conterio expanded his talk to two 50-minute lectures. Throughout the lectures various concepts are demonstrated using props including a bouncy ball, a laser pen and foil covered pieces of wood.

A question sheet is provided to students attending the lectures and the project hopes to leave them intrigued about science and “feeling that science was interesting, and quite different from the image of it all being boring maths done by stuffy old men in white coats”.

Contact details: Michael Conterio, mjc209@cam.ac.uk