{"title":"磁感受和主导假说。","authors":"Yoni Vortman, Robert Fitak, Eviatar Natan","doi":"10.1242/jeb.250252","DOIUrl":null,"url":null,"abstract":"<p><p>Whereas science is written by humans and cannot escape emotions intervening with scientific thought, the scientific community should be on guard against unnoticeably adopting a favorite hypothesis. When adopting a favorite hypothesis, scientists tend to review their work in favor of this hypothesis and reject contradictory data. In 1890, Thomas Chrowder Chamberlin first described this phenomenon as when 'the search for facts, and their interpretation are dominated by affection for the favored theory until it appears to its advocate to have been overwhelmingly established'. The favorite hypothesis can then quickly transition into a ruling hypothesis, leading to an unconscious bias in favor of supporting evidence and neglect of contradictory observations. This is especially problematic when a scientific field adopts a favorite hypothesis. In this Commentary, we suggest that the field of animal magnetoreception - in particular mechanisms based on radical-pair chemistry and cryptochrome proteins - may be under the reign of a ruling hypothesis. We argue that repeatedly, conclusions are unfounded or otherwise not consistent with the results presented. We use the case of magnetoreception - the only sense that remains without a clearly described receptor - to raise general awareness of the phenomenon of a ruling hypothesis in the scientific community. We emphasize the distinction between the scientist and the scientific community suffering from a hypothesis regime, and further highlight suggestions to mitigate the risk of working under a ruling hypothesis.</p>","PeriodicalId":15786,"journal":{"name":"Journal of Experimental Biology","volume":"228 7","pages":""},"PeriodicalIF":2.8000,"publicationDate":"2025-04-01","publicationTypes":"Journal Article","fieldsOfStudy":null,"isOpenAccess":false,"openAccessPdf":"","citationCount":"0","resultStr":"{\"title\":\"Magnetoreception and the ruling hypothesis.\",\"authors\":\"Yoni Vortman, Robert Fitak, Eviatar Natan\",\"doi\":\"10.1242/jeb.250252\",\"DOIUrl\":null,\"url\":null,\"abstract\":\"<p><p>Whereas science is written by humans and cannot escape emotions intervening with scientific thought, the scientific community should be on guard against unnoticeably adopting a favorite hypothesis. When adopting a favorite hypothesis, scientists tend to review their work in favor of this hypothesis and reject contradictory data. In 1890, Thomas Chrowder Chamberlin first described this phenomenon as when 'the search for facts, and their interpretation are dominated by affection for the favored theory until it appears to its advocate to have been overwhelmingly established'. The favorite hypothesis can then quickly transition into a ruling hypothesis, leading to an unconscious bias in favor of supporting evidence and neglect of contradictory observations. This is especially problematic when a scientific field adopts a favorite hypothesis. In this Commentary, we suggest that the field of animal magnetoreception - in particular mechanisms based on radical-pair chemistry and cryptochrome proteins - may be under the reign of a ruling hypothesis. We argue that repeatedly, conclusions are unfounded or otherwise not consistent with the results presented. We use the case of magnetoreception - the only sense that remains without a clearly described receptor - to raise general awareness of the phenomenon of a ruling hypothesis in the scientific community. We emphasize the distinction between the scientist and the scientific community suffering from a hypothesis regime, and further highlight suggestions to mitigate the risk of working under a ruling hypothesis.</p>\",\"PeriodicalId\":15786,\"journal\":{\"name\":\"Journal of Experimental Biology\",\"volume\":\"228 7\",\"pages\":\"\"},\"PeriodicalIF\":2.8000,\"publicationDate\":\"2025-04-01\",\"publicationTypes\":\"Journal Article\",\"fieldsOfStudy\":null,\"isOpenAccess\":false,\"openAccessPdf\":\"\",\"citationCount\":\"0\",\"resultStr\":null,\"platform\":\"Semanticscholar\",\"paperid\":null,\"PeriodicalName\":\"Journal of Experimental Biology\",\"FirstCategoryId\":\"99\",\"ListUrlMain\":\"https://doi.org/10.1242/jeb.250252\",\"RegionNum\":2,\"RegionCategory\":\"生物学\",\"ArticlePicture\":[],\"TitleCN\":null,\"AbstractTextCN\":null,\"PMCID\":null,\"EPubDate\":\"2025/4/10 0:00:00\",\"PubModel\":\"Epub\",\"JCR\":\"Q2\",\"JCRName\":\"BIOLOGY\",\"Score\":null,\"Total\":0}","platform":"Semanticscholar","paperid":null,"PeriodicalName":"Journal of Experimental Biology","FirstCategoryId":"99","ListUrlMain":"https://doi.org/10.1242/jeb.250252","RegionNum":2,"RegionCategory":"生物学","ArticlePicture":[],"TitleCN":null,"AbstractTextCN":null,"PMCID":null,"EPubDate":"2025/4/10 0:00:00","PubModel":"Epub","JCR":"Q2","JCRName":"BIOLOGY","Score":null,"Total":0}
Whereas science is written by humans and cannot escape emotions intervening with scientific thought, the scientific community should be on guard against unnoticeably adopting a favorite hypothesis. When adopting a favorite hypothesis, scientists tend to review their work in favor of this hypothesis and reject contradictory data. In 1890, Thomas Chrowder Chamberlin first described this phenomenon as when 'the search for facts, and their interpretation are dominated by affection for the favored theory until it appears to its advocate to have been overwhelmingly established'. The favorite hypothesis can then quickly transition into a ruling hypothesis, leading to an unconscious bias in favor of supporting evidence and neglect of contradictory observations. This is especially problematic when a scientific field adopts a favorite hypothesis. In this Commentary, we suggest that the field of animal magnetoreception - in particular mechanisms based on radical-pair chemistry and cryptochrome proteins - may be under the reign of a ruling hypothesis. We argue that repeatedly, conclusions are unfounded or otherwise not consistent with the results presented. We use the case of magnetoreception - the only sense that remains without a clearly described receptor - to raise general awareness of the phenomenon of a ruling hypothesis in the scientific community. We emphasize the distinction between the scientist and the scientific community suffering from a hypothesis regime, and further highlight suggestions to mitigate the risk of working under a ruling hypothesis.
期刊介绍:
Journal of Experimental Biology is the leading primary research journal in comparative physiology and publishes papers on the form and function of living organisms at all levels of biological organisation, from the molecular and subcellular to the integrated whole animal.