No isolated experiment, however significant in itself, can suffice for the experimental demonstration of any natural phenomenon; for the "one chance in a million" will undoubtedly occur, with no less and no more than its appropriate frequency, however surprised we may be that it should occur to us.
Interpretation
No single experiment can prove a natural phenomenon, as rarity and frequency balance in nature.
Ronald Fisher emphasizes that individual experiments, no matter how groundbreaking, are not enough to demonstrate the validity of a natural phenomenon. He points out that unexpected outcomes, though surprising, are part of the natural order and will occur at their expected rates. This conveys the importance of replication and statistical validity in scientific research.
In practice
In a scientific conference discussing the importance of experimental replication.
I believe sanity and realism can be restored to the teaching of Mathematical Statistics most easily and directly by entrusting such teaching largely to men and women who have had personal experience of research in the Natural Sciences.
To consult the statistician after an experiment is finished is often merely to ask him to conduct a post mortem examination. He can perhaps say what the experiment died of.
Biology is now bigger than physics, as measured by the size of budgets, by the size of the workforce, or by the output of major discoveries; and biology is likely to remain the biggest part of science through the twenty-first century.
Very many maintain that all we know is still infinitely less than all that still remains unknown.
We know so much about planets and the universe and small particles and we do not know anything about the inner state of our own bodies, we do not know about this microcosm we have inside our skin.
Imagination alone is not enough, because the reality of nature is far more wondrous than anything we can imagine
Now I'm a scientific expert; that means I know nothing about absolutely everything.
The facts will eventually test all our theories, and they form, after all, the only impartial jury to which we can appeal.
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