**Isolation is fundamental to the scientific method, because without first separating and bounding a subject, no observation, measurement, testing, or verification is possible.** Isolation means taking one thing and **separating it from everything else** so you can point to it and say, _this, and not that_. If you cannot separate it and present it, you do not have a thing — you have an idea you are **assuming** to be true. This is the operating rule of material sciences: physics, chemistry, analytical chemistry, organic chemistry, inorganic chemistry, physical chemistry, biochemistry, molecular biology, cell biology, histology, pathology, microbiology, bacteriology, virology, parasitology, pharmacology, toxicology, physiology, anatomy, neuroscience, immunology, genetics, materials science, metallurgy, crystallography, forensic science, geology, mineralogy, environmental science, and engineering disciplines. All of which rely on **isolation, sampling, containment, separation, purification, compartmentalization, and boundedness** to declare material [[Existence]]; Without these, claims reduce to assumption rather than object. e.g. if a gas element was not purified (isolated) - then said assumed element does not exist.