This discussion, however, focuses on features that are unique to science.
It assumes that science is obliged in part to offer explanatory and
predictive power about the natural world. An additional assumption is
that the scientific method, which includes explicit hypothesis testing, is
the most efficient technique for acquiring reliable knowledge. The scientific
method should be used to elucidate mechanisms underlying observed
patterns; such elucidation is the key to predicting and understanding
natural systems (Levin 1992; but see Pickett et al. 1994). In other
From a modern scientific perspective, a hypothesis is a candidate
explanation for a pattern observed in nature (Medawar 1984; Matter and
Mannan 1989); that is, a hypothesis is a potential reason for the pattern
and it should be testable and falsifiable (Popper 1981). Hypothesis testing
is a fundamental attribute of science that is absent from virtually all
other human activities. Science is a process by which competing
hypotheses are examined, tested, and rejected. Failure to falsify a hypothesis
with an appropriately designed test is interpreted as confirmatory
evidence that the hypothesis is accurate, although it should be recognized
that alternative and perhaps as yet unformulated hypotheses
could be better explanations.