Board Thread:Theories and Speculation/@comment-3568954-20141031085827/@comment-1512913-20141031104152

Just to clarify Omega, the word theory doesn't mean the same thing in science as it does in common usage by people. We use the word theory to mean speculation, assumption. In science, the word hypothesis has a similar meaning to our theory with the only difference that a hypothesis is an educated guess while a non-literal theory may not even be educated and is just a guess and may even contradict known facts.

A theory in science describes real phenomena as observed and understood at a given time, meaning a theory is only as true as is our understanding of the phenomena. But a theory backed up with plenty of evidence that can be tested for falsifiability is as close to a "fact" as you can get. I mean, explanation of gravity too is just a theory, but you don't doubt that if you jump out of a window you will fall, do you?

So stating that hayflick limit is "not a biological fact" but "just a theory" is as untrue as it gets. It's a "fact" until and if it gets disproven, until then, it's true.