Mario Livio

Brilliant Blunders

1. IDEA 1

   Great scientists make big mistakes

   Livio examines serious errors made by five famous scientists. He argues that these blunders were often bold ideas that pushed science forward, even though they turned out to be wrong.

2. IDEA 2

   Darwin misunderstood inheritance

   Livio explains that Darwin accepted the idea that traits blend together in offspring. This view actually made natural selection harder to explain, until genetics later solved the problem. Mendel's work on pea plants later helped fix this gap.

3. IDEA 3

   Kelvin misjudged Earth's age

   Livio describes how Lord Kelvin calculated that Earth was too young for evolution to have worked. He did not know about radioactivity, which keeps Earth's interior warm. His reasoning was careful, but it rested on missing knowledge.

All 8 ideas from Brilliant Blunders →