Understanding is the start. People can never really accept things they don't truly understand. And the more we know about something, the less frightening it becomes. It's one thing to hate and fear a mutant you've only heard about in abstract -- it's a pretty scary word! -- but it's another thing to have lived next door to someone all your life, to know that they're no different from you, that they have feelings and troubles and good points just like you do, and only then to learn that they can uproot a house with their mind.
Since we can't give everyone a mutant next door neighbor, the least I can do is give them ironclad scientific evidence to show how mutants came to be, and that they're not really so different from ordinary humans.