I'm not sure if this will count as something being proved false, but-- we now classify "elements" not as fire, water, wind, or earth. In fact, fire is a form of energy, water is comprised for two different elements, and both the wind and the earth have many different kinds of elements in them. Traditionally speaking, it's still correct to refer to water as an element.
But scientifically speaking, it's not. What we define elements as is by the number of protons their atoms have. For instance, a hydrogen atom has only one proton. A oxygen atom has eight protons. Separately, they're different elements. But when combined-- two hydrogen and one oxygen-- they make up a molecule, what we know to be water.
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I'm not sure if this will count as something being proved false, but-- we now classify "elements" not as fire, water, wind, or earth. In fact, fire is a form of energy, water is comprised for two different elements, and both the wind and the earth have many different kinds of elements in them. Traditionally speaking, it's still correct to refer to water as an element.
But scientifically speaking, it's not. What we define elements as is by the number of protons their atoms have. For instance, a hydrogen atom has only one proton. A oxygen atom has eight protons. Separately, they're different elements. But when combined-- two hydrogen and one oxygen-- they make up a molecule, what we know to be water.