This question is different than that relating to articles about once accepted ideas that are no longer accepted.

The answer to this question about once derided ideas probably would generate a very long list of examples. The question shows one of the challenges for scientific researchers. On the one hand, adopting the wrong theory can be embarrassing and cause career damage. Those are considerations, among others, that promote skepticism. On the other hand, the advance of civilization depends in part on the ability of society to recognize scientific advances. One may suspect that there were, and still are, good ideas that would help society that have no audience yet. (I have a few ideas about scaling, dimension, networks, and cosmology, with an audience that probably ranges from slight to none.)

Here are a few examples of derided ideas. Ptolemy stated that the idea of the Earth turning on its axis was ridiculous; birds would fall out of the sky unable to keep up with the Earth’s rotation. Wegener initially got a poor reception for continents moving. Semmelweis encountered hostility from doctors for suggesting that antiseptic procedures following dissections would curtail maternal mortality in birthing. Do you have examples?

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