Boy, were we wrong about...

When the expert astronomers decided that Pluto was not a planet, most of our collection on Space became erroneous and out of date. These books have been weeded and new books, with updated, correct (for now anyway) information have been added to the Children’s Room collection for interested readers and those doing research for school reports. Check out some of these new &/or updated books:

11 Planets: a new view of the Solar System by David Aguilar
The New Solar System; dwarf planets by Robin Birch
The planets by Gail Gibbons (3rd edition)
Pluto: from Planet to Dwarf by Elaine Landau
Our Solar System by Seymour Simon (updated edition)

One new book, Boy, Were We Wrong about the Solar System! by Kathleen Kudlinski (who also wrote Boy, Were We Wrong about Dinosaurs! ) got me thinking about all the things we once accepted as fact because of "experts" and wondering what other facts that we now accept as being true will be proven "wrong" in the future. It's always funny when "experts" get it wrong. Here are some famous quotes that, I bet, they would like to take back:

"The horse is here to stay but the automobile is only a novelty - a fad." — The president of the Michigan Savings Bank advising Henry Ford’s lawyer, Horace Rackham, not to invest in the Ford Motor Co., 1903

"There will never be a bigger plane built."— A Boeing engineer, after the first flight of the 247, a twin engine plane that held ten people

"I think there is a world market for maybe five computers."--by Thomas Watson, chairman of IBM, 1943

"Television won’t be able to hold on to any market it captures after the first six months. People will soon get tired of staring at a plywood box every night." — Darryl Zanuck, movie producer, 20th Century Fox, 1946

"There is no reason anyone would want a computer in their home."--by Ken Olson of Digital Equipment Corp in 1977

And so, as Kathleen Kudlinski writes at the end of her book, "What will we learn? It will probably surprise us. Perhaps you will be one of the scientists--or one of the astronauts--who makes us say, "Boy, were we wrong about..."