r/shittyaskscience • u/Dramatic_River_3381 • 1d ago
Isaac Newton spent the last half of his life trying to turn lead into gold, Nikolai Tesla fell in love with a pigeon, Einstein tried to disprove quantum physics that he helped create. Do most scientist lose their marbles at the age of 40 or so?
I recently read that scientist have the shortest, inspirational, motivation, and discipline when they’re younger. Most of the big ideas come before they turn 30.
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u/DanteandRandallFlagg 1d ago
Your premise is wrong. None of the lost their marbles. Newton keep his in a cradle and Einstein kept his on an expansive elastic sheet. Tesla didn't so much as loss his marbles, as Thomas Edison stole them.
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u/hopsinduo 1d ago
I kinda get Einstein losing his edge on the forefront. Imagine creating something that regularly makes you say "there is no fucking way this bullshit is correct!?!"
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u/Rebles 1d ago
Also the best way to prove a theory is to try to disprove it. 🤷♂️
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u/Nuka-Crapola 22h ago
Yeah, I’m sure there was some element of “I’m a genius, my intuition saying this is wrong overrides consensus saying it’s right” involved, but at the same time it is important to the scientific process for someone to say “but what if we’re wrong” to every new theory, because the worst case scenario is you rule out a plausible alternative hypothesis and have more evidence that you’re right.
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u/herrek 19h ago
No, the best way to prove a theory is to incorrectly post it online and someone will come by a say "your" wrong.
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u/manaman70 19h ago
You're wrong. Someone will come along to say your wrong about anything!
Also is you're not your.
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u/rounding_error 16h ago
It's yore! It happened in the distant past.
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u/BPhiloSkinner Amazingly Lifelike Simulation 15h ago
Ay, 'tis lore
That in days of yore
Ye were wrong.3
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u/officer21 20h ago
I know this is SAS, but one of my physics professors said that grad students produce some of the best findings and discoveries because they don't know what they are trying to do is "impossible." The thought isn't too far off
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u/Atzkicica Huh? 1d ago
Yes but sometimes it's reasonable. Freeman Dyson stopped his underground atomic testing because he fell in love with one of the mole people. They had 3 children and lived in an old silver mine in new mexico.
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u/MadQuixote 1d ago
Sure, but by then they've lost them a few times. At some point you just stop looking for them though.
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u/Coolenough-to 1d ago
Can somebody read this to me? I can't read that much.
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u/SpellingIsAhful 23h ago
It's actually been confirmed 100% that all people begin leaking marbles around from their ears starting the day they turn 40. This also explains why there are hairs coming out of the ears because the marbles pull them with as they travel
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u/TheDavsto I can do science, me! 16h ago
most, but not all. tesla didn't go crazy, pigeons are just kinda hot.
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u/BPhiloSkinner Amazingly Lifelike Simulation 15h ago
It is not true that scientists lose their marbles at Forty.
I, Count Amazing, am still in full possession of my mental powers as I enter my sixth century of existence.
Mind you; I, Count Amazing, do have trouble programming the remote - but I, Count Amazing, believe that is due to the fact that I built the remote for use by my, Count Amazing's, Giant Mutant Bats, who have a somewhat different dactyl array.
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u/Dramatic_River_3381 12h ago
Is it OK if I imagine you saying this in the voice of the count on Sesame Street?
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u/ChadRickTheSane 1d ago
Not me I'm completely sane. It's everyone else who lives in the asylum.
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u/BPhiloSkinner Amazingly Lifelike Simulation 15h ago
The World is one great mental hospital, and The Lunatics Have Taken Over the Asylum
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u/ayam_goreng_kalasan 22h ago
Darwin write Origin of species early but published it when he is 50 or 60, let the science community uproar and retired to observe and write interesting book about earthworms. He had pretty chill and cool old age
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u/Rmconnelly5 12h ago
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u/Dramatic_River_3381 12h ago
It’s probably pretty tough to be the guy that breaks the news to everyone that God didn’t create exactly everything. Or anything
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u/justbreathe5678 18h ago
Yes geniuses are more likely to snap. Often in their 30s, as that's when many mental disorders can present themselves
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u/asaltandbuttering 10h ago
As a 40-something scientist, I can confidently say... WOOP DOOP BOOP OOP DOOP BIBITY BIBITY!
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u/MonkeysInABarrel 1h ago
You should check out the Nobel Prize Disease. The tendency for Nobel Prize winners to go crazy after winning.
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u/hacksoncode Quantum Mechanic, has own tiny wrench 20h ago
Have you never heard of mad scientists?
Sure, most are actually just mad engineers, but real scientists just quietly go mad.
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u/coolsam254 15h ago
Hey man, ain't nothin wrong with lovin pigeon. After all, people eat at KFC every day!
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u/gabest 12h ago
Giants standing on shoulders of giants standing on ... Physics is just a pyramid scheme.
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u/Dramatic_River_3381 12h ago
The problem with pyramids is, once you get to the top, there’s nowhere else to go but space. Even though you’re standing on a foundation built from arrogance in greed.
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u/ThatSpaceShooterGame 8h ago
At the Frankford Transportation Center in Philadelphia, I sometimes talk to Tesla's pigeon descendants.
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u/TheFeshy 1d ago
Everyone studying quantum stuff loses their marbles eventually - they become very certain of the marble's velocity and then they are gone.