Method

Why an observation is not yet evidence. Why photographs, videos, and preserved material matter, and how to distinguish a convincing hypothesis from reproducible knowledge.

A continuation of ‘Flying Elephants’: a story was never evidence, but now even photographs and videos need a documented origin. What counts as evidence in the age of artificial intelligence?

A method is not a ritual. What matters is understanding the function of each staining step, which part of the procedure creates the diagnostic feature, and why changing the method must also change the wording of the result.

FMC can be useful, but simply bathing the fish proves very little. We examine the origins of the mixture, formalin and FMC regimens, the relationship between dose and exposure time, and how treatment becomes ritual when the drug replaces the clinical question.

Flashing is observable behavior, while “itching,” “gill irritation,” and “parasites” are already explanations. We examine what can actually be observed, which conclusions genuinely follow from the fish’s behavior, and where a familiar phrase turns into an unproven causal model.

A practical view of the scientific method: how to avoid being confidently wrong and distinguish knowledge from assumption.