10 Interesting But Discredited Theories Throughout the ages, scientists have sought to explain the unexplainable, to shed light on the shadows of the universe’s mysteries. However, an innumerable amount of ideas have been and will continue to be proven wrong. For example, we used to think the Sun revolves around the Earth and that our planet is flat (some holdouts notwithstanding). To quote American historian Will Durant: “Education is a progressive discovery of our own ignorance.” [1] Having said that, here are ten interesting but discredited theories. 10 Bode’s Law Otherwise known as the Titius-Bode law, this particular hypothesis was used to predict the spacing between the planets in our solar system. (It’s basically a simple numerical formula.) German astronomer Johann Daniel Titius was the first to create the empirical rule, which seemed to reliably predict the distances of each planet from the Sun. In fact, the law even proposed the existence of an unseen planet between Mars and Jupiter, which turned out to be the asteroid belt.