Random Acts of Scientific Thought...

or Stream of Conciousness or Stream of Delirium,...

In regards to things that affect nature, Influence and Control are two different things.  And within a complex natural system, there may be more than one Controlling Factor (or Input) and several smaller Factors (Inputs) that influence the system but are not significant enough to control it.

Laboratories are examples of Closed Systems, where all inputs can (or should) be controlled and accounted for.  Nature is an Open System, where inputs can be cyclical or random and where some inputs enhance each other (Synergy), while others negate each other (Antagonism). [Negate is not quite the proper word, but a better word escapes me at the moment.]  The variability of inputs in an Open System make them not only difficult to enumerate, but to evaluate.

Field scientists (such as myself) observe Causes and Effects in the Open System of Nature, i.e., we see the results and wonder about the "How and Why", with the knowledge that we may never know the entire story, as we may never know all of the inputs of the present and past.  Mother Nature is messy.  Thus we have our own biases.
More to come...