Alice Evans, Aristarchus, The Wright Brothers, Barbara McClintock, John Snow

So many of the things we take for granted today, things that so obviously improve our lives, didn't catch on as easily as you might think. It can be difficult for people to come around to new ideas, even when adopting them would be in their best interest. Indeed, individuals throughout history have been doubtful of everything from penicillin to airplanes, only to be proven extraordinarily wrong once the concepts they mocked went on to change the world.

Although it's great that people usually come around to amazing ideas, it can be a very frustrating process for those thinkers and inventors who can't see why the world doesn't want their help. In some cases, these heroes of humanity couldn't even stick around long enough to see their work be appreciated. But we can certainly appreciate them now.

Read on to learn about the figures throughout history who were right all along.

Alice Evans

Through decades of study and research, Evans proved that consuming unpasteurized dairy could lead individuals to contract a dangerous bacterial infection called brucellosis. Evans recommended that all dairy should be put through a pasteurization process, but was laughed at by the dairy industry and the scientific community alike, until finally, after 10 years of convincing, pasteurization became common practice.

Aristarchus

Aristarchus is credited with developing the first heliocentric theory of the stars that put the Sun, not the Earth, at the center of our solar system. Although he was mocked in his own time, Aristarchus' beliefs were finally absolved in 1610 when the heliocentric theory was proven correct by Renaissance astronomer Galileo.

The Wright Brothers

But despite being such an obviously revolutionary development, the Wright Brothers' flying machine wasn't an instant hit. In fact, after years of trying to sell their invention to the American government, the Wright Brothers were eventually forced to look to France for support.

Barbara McClintock

In reality, McClintock and her research into the nature of DNA were simply too advanced for her contemporaries to follow, and she came under intense scrutiny. It wasn't until decades later that the rest of the scientific community caught up to McClintock and realized she was right about the presence and nature of certain genes called transposons.

John Snow

Snow studied which water sources cholera patients were drinking from and discovered they invariably drank from the same source. Unfortunately, for both Snow and for London, his arguments were rejected in favor of the ever-prevailing miasma theory, until evidence of contamination in the studied water sources was eventually found.