Hypothesis 101
On my iGoogle home page, I have a quotes of the day section. Occasionally, a quote comes along that resonates with me. Like today when I read the following quote attributed to Thomas H. Huxley:
“The great tragedy of Science – the slaying of a beautiful hypothesis by an ugly fact.”
So often the beauty of the hypothesis comes from inside. It is my hypothesis, my idea, my insight and that is what makes it beautiful. Being able to discard that hypothesis in light of an ugly fact can be difficult to do and accept. It is the reality that I have overlooked something, miscalculated or come up short. Instinctly I want to challenge the validity of this “ugly fact”. Ultimately, however, the quicker the acceptance of incompleteness of my present hypothesis, the sooner I am to get closer to a better hypothesis and hopefully closer to true discovery and understanding.
