Cite as: 509 U. S. 579 (1993)
Opinion of the Court
court concluded that petitioners' evidence provided an insufficient foundation to allow admission of expert testimony that Bendectin caused their injuries and, accordingly, that petitioners could not satisfy their burden of proving causation at trial.
We granted certiorari, 506 U. S. 914 (1992), in light of sharp divisions among the courts regarding the proper standard for the admission of expert testimony. Compare, e. g., United States v. Shorter, 257 U. S. App. D. C. 358, 363- 364, 809 F. 2d 54, 59-60 (applying the "general acceptance" standard), cert. denied, 484 U. S. 817 (1987), with DeLuca v. Merrell Dow Pharmaceuticals, Inc., 911 F. 2d 941, 955 (CA3 1990) (rejecting the "general acceptance" standard).
II
A
In the 70 years since its formulation in the Frye case, the "general acceptance" test has been the dominant standard for determining the admissibility of novel scientific evidence at trial. See E. Green & C. Nesson, Problems, Cases, and Materials on Evidence 649 (1983). Although under increasing attack of late, the rule continues to be followed by a majority of courts, including the Ninth Circuit.3
The Frye test has its origin in a short and citation-free 1923 decision concerning the admissibility of evidence derived from a systolic blood pressure deception test, a crude precursor to the polygraph machine. In what has become a famous (perhaps infamous) passage, the then Court of Appeals for the District of Columbia described the device and its operation and declared:
"Just when a scientific principle or discovery crosses the line between the experimental and demonstrable stages
3 For a catalog of the many cases on either side of this controversy, see P. Giannelli & E. Imwinkelried, Scientific Evidence § 1-5, pp. 10-14 (1986 and Supp. 1991).
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