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The scientific hypothesis is a lot more interesting, valuable and far-reaching, but also more complex, than you might think. I’ll be covering many topics related to the scientific hypothesis as well as to links between the hypothesis and broader areas of scientific thinking, education, communication and research. Occasionally, I’ll take some topic from the news – say, Global Warming – and try to clear up the confusion related to scientific reasoning that can contribute to the public conversation.

First, the basics: What is a scientific hypothesis? It is a proposed explanation for something – usually a phenomenon or event – it makes predictions that are testable by experiment or observation (i.e., empirically testable in principle); it can be falsified – shown to be wrong it its predictions are wrong – though not proven to be right.  All of this may sound simple and familiar, nevertheless, many people, including some scientists and science students, see the description of the hypothesis as just so many words. Deep down, they have reservations; they don’t fully accept it or its implications, or think it is useful. This website is devoted to issues that even committed hypothesis-users find puzzling at times.

This will a grab bag, however the plan is to focus on subjects that will interest, not only scientists and science students, but any non-scientist-citizen who wants to understand scientific reasoning. I’ll also offer occasional reviews of books on similar topics and invite questions for “Professor Hypothesis” who will try to address the burning hypothesis-related issues that many of us have. Let me know what you think. Enjoy.

(Image of black swan from Wikipedia, courtesy of Kiril Krastev, used according to the terms of
 Creative Commons Attribution-Share Alike 3.0 Unported License)