How do we know what is "right" in Science

We can learn a lot by looking at the history of wrong ideas. In many cases, the wrong ideas have simply been forgotten. Also, correct ideas have taken a very long time to be accepted. Usually the scientific method works in the end, but prejudice, preconceptions, racism and plain stupidity have hindered scientific progress. Examples include

• The Ptolemaic Model of the Solar System
• Lysenko and Acquired Characteristics
• Wegener's Theory of Continental Drift
• Freud and Psychoanalysis
• Maclintock and Jumping Genes
• Pons-Fleischmann and Cold Fusion
• Velikovsky and the Solar System

It is not possible for every generation of scientists to check every result, so the question is "why do we believe what we believe?"

Immanuel Velikovsky

Born Moscow 1895 M. D. 1921 Psychoanalysis Tel Aviv in 30’s Worlds in Collision (Doubleday 1950) Earth In Upheaval (Doubleday 1955) AAAS (American Association for the Advancement of Science) debate with Sagan, Goldsmith, Mulholland (1974) Honorary degree (Lethbridge, 1978) Died 1985

Immanuel Velikovsky

Thesis:

Basic 'experimental' input is vast array of myths from many cultures. These represent the incomprehensible as seen by primitive man, and hence can be interpreted as historically accurate data. Note there is a lot of evidence that even trained observers are incapable of seeing novel phenomena for what they really are.

Secondly: many myths tell the same story: e.g., many peoples tell of magical food falling from the sky.

• Manna that sustained the Israelites,
• Morning dew in the Icelandic Eddas,
• Honey from the clouds in the Rig-Veda of the Hindus,
• Honey from the clouds in the Finnish Kalevala,
• Hera, symbolizing the Earth, was shrouded in ambrosia,
• Maori legends have two magical dews, the heavy for eating and the light for drinking.
  All these seem to be associated in the legends with times of great upheaval and darkness

Immanuel Velikovsky

Velikovsky extracted the common features, and welded them into a history of primeval disasters.

• e.g. Exodus: 10 plagues of Egypt
  1. Nile turned to blood
  2. Plague of frogs
  3. Plague of Lice
  4. Plague of flies
  5. Death of Cattle
  6. Plague of Boils
  7. Plague of hail
  8. Plague of locusts
  9. Plague of darkness
  10. Death of first-born

• Parting of Red Sea

• Provision of Manna in the desert

• Pillar of cloud by day, a column of fire by night

Immanuel Velikovsky

The Model

Immanuel Velikovsky

Analysis: the Biblical story of Exodus.

E.g. 10 plagues of Egypt

• First entry into comet’s tail: ferric dust precipitated, poisons rivers, Babylonian myths have the blood of the monster Tiamat poured upon the earth⇒
• Nile turned to blood Warmth of the comet's tail ⇒
• Plague of frogs
• Plague of Lice
• Plague of flies Meteorites from cometary core: Annals of Cuahtitlan "sky rained, not water, but fire and red-hot stones" ⇒
• Death of Cattle
• Plague of Boils
• Plague of hail
• Plague of locusts
• Plague of darkness

Immanuel Velikovsky

Interaction with Venus caused earth’s axis to be stopped and permanently shifted: Iran saw a 3-fold day and 3-fold night, Chinese legends speak of a holocaust during which the sun does not set for several days and the land was aflame ->

Death of first-born Earthquakes triggered by Venus first drain Red Sea and then trigger tsunamis, which drown Egyptians ⇒

Parting of Red Sea

Hydrocarbons from comets tail are tuned into carbohydrates by bacterial action, allows survival of the Israelites in the desert Provision of Manna in the desert

Earthquakes and volcanoes triggered by Venus ⇒ volcanic explosions and earthquakes ->

>Pillar of cloud by day, a column of fire by night

Eruption of Mt. Thera on Santorini destroyed the Minoan civilization on Crete: (Knossos is 120 km away). First explosion on scale of Mt. St. Helen, deposited ash over the eastern Mediterranean, followed perhaps 20 years later by a "paroxysmal eruption" which produced catastrophic tsunamis. Atlantis legend: a land of great natural wealth and advanced civilization that sank beneath the waves in a single day and night of misfortune. Plato gave Atlantis dimensions of 200 kilometres by 400; pre-eruption Santorini was about 20 x 40. Huge cloud of dust from Santorini had worldwide effects, extending as far as China, where the beginning of the Shang dynasty also dates from ~1620 B.C.

Image courtesy NASA/GSFC/METI/ERSDAC/JAROS and U.S./Japan ASTER Science Team

Immanuel Velikovsky

But Velikovsky predicts much more:

Prediction	Velikovsky	Astronomy	Observation	V	A
Temperature of Venus	Hot	Same as Earth	800°C	1	0
Cooling of Venus	Still cooling	Static	Prob. static	0	0.5
Clouds of Venus	Hydrocarbons	Not known	Sulphuric acid	0	0
Atmosphere of Venus	Very thick	Earthlike	50 atmos.	1	0
Craters on moon	Formed in 1450 B.C.	Prehistoric meteors	3 billion years old	0	1
Radioactivity on moon	Strong	None	Little	0	1
Magnetism on moon	Large	None	Evidence in rocks	1	0
Jupiter's temperature	Hot	Cold	Clouds cold, Core Hot	0.5	0.5
Radio waves from Jupiter	Yes	Never thought of it!	Seen 1958	1	0
Jupiter's atmosphere	Chlorine and sulphur	?	Both present	0.5	0

Immanuel Velikovsky

Magnetic reversal	850 B.C.	No recent ones	Maybe in pottery	0	0.5
Martian atmosphere	Argon/ neon	Nitrogen, oxygen	Carbon dioxide	0	0
Total				5	3.5

it is hard to escape the conclusion that, if we are to judge a scientific theory by its results, conventional astronomy is marginally worse.

Immanuel Velikovsky

• Astronomers at Harvard suppressed the publication of Worlds in Collision, by forcing Macmillan's to reject the book, with the threat that no more academic textbooks would be sent to them for publication.

  "frankly, …the publication must cut me off from the Macmillan Company" Howard Shapley, Director Harvard Observatory (Jan 1950)

• Rights transferred to Doubleday

  "Several attempts have been made to link such a move to stop the book’s publication to ..the Harvard Observatory. This idea is utterly false" Howard Shapley (Sept 1950)

• "This was not only immoral, but a blunder." Isaac Asimov.

• Then why are Velikovsky's ideas unacceptable?

• The short answer is that his solar system doesn't conserve energy, or momentum or angular momentum. So back to reality!