Scientific discovery Memes

Rutherford's atomic model was revolutionary enough to earn him a Nobel Prize, yet flawed enough to be almost immediately dismantled by his peers. That's science for you - your greatest achievement is just someone else's problem set. His plum pudding got quantum mechanically shredded while he was still basking in the glory. Nothing says "welcome to academia" like watching your life's work become a historical footnote before the ink dries on your paper.

The entire field of physics reduced to "apple falls on head, gravity discovered!" Meanwhile, generations of brilliant physicists who developed quantum mechanics, relativity, and everything else are sitting there like, "Seriously? We spent our lives unraveling the fundamental secrets of the universe, and all people remember is a fruit-based anecdote that probably never happened." It's like crediting the discovery of DNA to someone who looked at a twisted ladder and said "hey that looks neat" while ignoring the thousands of researchers who've mapped the human genome since. Those physicists in the photo are collectively facepalming from beyond the grave.