[passer_byer]

Alfred Wegener as the initial author on the theory of plate tectonics comes to mind. He was a trained meteorologist who observed the similarities between geological formations between the South American east coast and African west coast. He was lucky, in that his father in-law was a prominent geologist and helped him defend this thesis.

[anonymouskimmer]

Oh yeah, revolutionary insights are very important for the advancement of knowledge and the elimination of wrong ideas. But as you wrote, this was the work of a thesis, not a random commenter from another field.