The most common theory was that the psychological stance of being invisible helped avoid detection by anyone who might be emphatically receptive-another unproven idea.

UniCredito's chief executive, Alessandro Profumo, is betting a sterling reputation and nearly 20 billion euros' worth of his bank's stock on an unproven idea.

The only answer to inner-city blight is a modest embrace of an unproven idea - tax cuts for businesses that locate in urban ghettos.

Nothing is more unscientific, more anti-scientific, than the unquestioning acceptance of an unproven idea.

The Foundation provides funding for people who have an unproven idea in the form of a 'salary', travel and office expenses.

This faith rests on two unproven ideas: Democratic ideals of a caring government will return to fashion, and Mrs. Whitman will eventually self-destruct.

Belief in an unproven idea is more suited to religious faith than to assigning responsibility for the attacks of Sept. 11.

However, unable to sell his unproven idea to France or any other government, Roch begins to lose his sanity, becoming bitter, megalomaniacal and paranoid.

And Mr. Foreyt of the Behavioral Medicine center called the book "alarmist, largely undocumented and based on testimonials and unproven ideas."

Lab officials say budgets are too tight to pursue Mascheroni's novel and unproven idea, which might cost $10 million simply to investigate.