主题：【原创】翻译讨论 -- 人间树

Part of the problem is the word “theory.” You and I have theories on all sorts of things, most based on personal whim, one observation or a single trusted source. Scientists are not so hasty. They take their initial ideas and run them through tests. Is this tentative theory based on an understanding of basic laws? Is it supported by existing laboratory experiments, observations of nature and mathematical and computer modeling?

If so, scientists devise another round of experiments — and then publish their results. Now other scientists have at the theory, rechecking every bit of the work. Only after all this can the concept, thoroughly and deeply tested, questioned and re-examined, gain the status of a “well-established theory” or be spoken of as “fact.”