My reaction was the same. I would argue that the requirement is even stronger: the hypothesis must be verified by different scientists over time. One of the key

My reaction was the same. I would argue that the requirement is even stronger: the hypothesis must be verified by different scientists over time. One of the key roles of the scientific method is error correction for bugs in our mental machinery (i.e., cognitive biases, of which there are many ). I look at science as an essentially evolutionary process: a single study has a very low probability of being accurate, if the results survive additional testing over time, the probability of accuracy increases.