Answer:
Step-by-step explanation:
The only word I can think of is confirm.
I choose confirm because they have already used empirical evidence (evidence that is primarily found by the senses. We hear something, we see something, We smell something -- although this is rather rare. Probably we would hear or see something first). We've used logical thinking, and we've likely even performed experiments.
So we've done all the ground work. All of these things are needed to confirm a scientific thought or premise that has been proposed. All of them aim at confirming what we proposed.