Scientists are often
skeptical of theories that rely on frequent, unsupported adjustments to sustain them. This is because, if a theorist so chooses, there is no limit to the number of
ad hoc hypotheses that they could add. Thus the theory becomes more and more complex, but is never falsified. This is often at a cost to the theory's
predictive power, however.
Albert Einstein's addition of the
cosmological constant to
general relativity in order to allow a
static universe was
ad hoc. Although he later referred to it as his "greatest blunder", it may correspond to theories of
dark energy. == See also ==