Cracked cream eggshell holding a tiny brass keyhole plate, with loose shell pieces

Original artwork, not a still

Carl Sagan

There are many hypotheses in science which are wrong. That's perfectly all right; they're the aperture to finding out what's right.

Behind the line

What it means

Our interpretation.

The speaker presents mistaken hypotheses as an acceptable part of scientific inquiry. Calling them an aperture makes them sound like openings toward better answers. The emphasis falls on what being wrong can make possible, rather than treating every wrong idea as a dead end.

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