or
burn up if Pauli just walked into the room.

"Up to the time he died, in 1958, his colleagues kidded about it,
without really believing there was anything behind it. But it is
recorded that the explosion of some vacuum equipment in a laboratory
at the University of Goettingen was the direct result of the Pauli
Effect. It was definitely established that the explosion occurred at
the precise moment that a train on which Pauli was traveling stopped
for a short time at the Goettingen railway station."

The senator said: "The poltergeist phenomenon."

"Not exactly," MacHeath said, "although there is a similarity. The
poltergeist phenomenon is usually spectacular and is nearly always
associated with teen-age neurotics. Then there's the pyrotic; fires
always start in his vicinity."

"But there's always a reason for psionic phenomena to react violently
under subconscious control," Senator Gonzales pointed out. "There's
always a psychological quirk."

"Sure. And I almost fell into the same trap, myself."

"How so?"

"I was thinking that if Bern were the saboteur, all our theories about
psionics would have to be thrown out--we'd have to start from a
different set of precepts. _And I didn't even want to think about such
an idea!_"

"Nobody likes their pet theories overthrown," Gonzales observed.

"Of course not. But here's the point: The only way that a scientific
theory can be proved wrong is to uncover a phenomenon which doesn't
fit in with the theory. A theoretical physicist is a mathematician; he
makes logical deductions and logical predictions by juggling symbols
around in accordance with some logical system. But the axioms, the
assumptions upon which those systems are built, are nonlogical. You
can't prove an axiom; if comes right out of the mind.

"So imagine that you're a theoretical physicist. A really
original-type thinker. You come up with a mathematical system that
explains all known phenomena at that time, and predicts others that
are, as yet, unknown. You check your math over and over again; there's
no error in your logic, since it all follows, step by step."

"O.K.; go on," Gonzales said interestedly.

"Very well, then; you've built yourself a logical universe, based on
your axioms, and the structure seems to have a one-to-one
correspondence with the actual universe. Not only that, but if the
theory is accepted, you've built your reputation on it--your life.

"Now, what happens if your axioms--n