June 29

Thomas Henry Huxley was a scientist who kept it all in its proper perspective when he said, “the great tragedy of science is the slaying of a beautiful hypothesis by an ugly fact.” He also gave the world a clear indication of the role that skepticism should play in the human experience when he noted, “Not far from the invention of fire … we must rank the invention of doubt.” He died on the 29th in 1895. Huxley was widely known to be Darwin’s bulldog.