Atlas Trail
Four scientific theories replaced by better ones, and what it actually took each time: new evidence, a missing mechanism finally supplied, or a rival account that still has not been settled.
Stop 1 of 7.
Theories
Phlogiston theory organized a century of chemistry correctly, but could not explain why metals gain weight when they burn.
Stop 2 of 7.
Theories
Lavoisier's sealed-vessel measurements replaced it with oxygen theory, though Priestley, whose own experiment supplied the key fact, never accepted the reinterpretation.
Stop 3 of 7.
Theories
Wegener's continental drift had real evidence but no mechanism, and was rejected in his lifetime.
Stop 4 of 7.
Theories
Seafloor spreading supplied the missing physics, and plate tectonics confirmed Wegener's core insight decades after his death.
Stop 5 of 7.
Theories
Steady-state theory rivaled the big bang theory until the 1965 cosmic microwave background discovery, though Fred Hoyle never accepted the result.
Stop 6 of 7.
Theories
The big bang theory's prediction of the cosmic microwave background is what settled the rivalry.
Stop 7 of 7.
Theories
Quantum theory's own interpretation is the one debate here still genuinely open: Bohr's Copenhagen collapse against Everett's many-worlds branching.
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