A theory should not attempt to explain all the facts, because some of the facts are wrong
Interpretation
Scientific theories should be flexible and not rigidly account for every observation, especially when some observations may be incorrect.
Francis Crick emphasizes that while developing a scientific theory, it is important to recognize that not all observed facts are trustworthy or accurate. Therefore, a good theory should accommodate the possibility of errors in observations rather than trying to explain every detail, as doing so can lead to flawed conclusions and misguided scientific understanding.
In practice
In a discussion about the scientific method, one might use this quote to illustrate the importance of skepticism in research.
One can say, looking at the papers in this symposium, that the elucidation of the genetic code is indeed a great achievement. It is, in a sense, the key to molecular biology because it shows how the great polymer languages, the nucleic acid language and the protein language, are linked together.
Exact knowledge is the enemy of vitalism.
It is essential to understand our brains in some detail if we are to assess correctly our place in this vast and complicated universe we see all around us.
To produce a really good biological theory one must try to see through the clutter produced by evolution to the basic mechanisms lying beneath them, realizing that they are likely to be overlaid by other, secondary mechanisms. What seems to physicists to be a hopelessly complicated process may have been what nature found simplest, because nature could only build on what was already there.
It has not escaped our notice that the specific pairing we have postulated immediately suggests a possible copying mechanism for the genetic material.
In the fullness of time, educated people will believe there is no soul independent of the body, and hence no life after death.
No new creation or destruction of matter is within the reach of chemical agency. We might as well attempt to introduce a new planet into the solar system, or to annihilate one already in existence, as to create or destroy a particle of hydrogen.
I hope that some day the practice of producing cowpox in human beings will spread over the world - when that day comes, there will be no more smallpox.
I met with amnesiacs and savants, educators and scientists, to try to understand what memory is, why it works, why it sometimes doesn't, and what its potential might be.
Any important disease whose causality is murky, and for which treatment is ineffectual, tends to be awash in significance.
The problem of neurology is to understand man himself.
No planet is more earth-like than Earth itself, so if life really does pop up readily in earth-like conditions, then surely it should have arisen many times right here on our home planet? And how do we know it didn't? The truth is, nobody has looked.
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