Karl Popper (1902-1994) is widely regarded as one of the greatest philosophers of science.

A hypothesis is a proposed explanation for a phenomenon. For a hypothesis to be a scientific hypothesis, the scientific method requires that one can test it by refuting it. It is not possible to ‘prove’ an hypothesis or show that an hypothesis is ‘true’, only falsify it. The null hypothesis is that some estimate is due to chance vs the alternative hypothesis that there is some statistically significant effect.If this evidence exists, we can reject the null hypothesis and accept the alternative hypothesis.

In the crime fiction novel Presumed Dead, the investigator reconstructs the crime with a chain of hypotheses. https://wp.me/P1z4yo-n