Fringe science

There are differing definitions of fringe science. Fringe science may be valid science which is not considered mainstream. Alternatively, it may be either a questionable scientific approach to a field of study or an approach whose status as scientific is dubious or widely questioned. In any case, it is an inquiry in an established field of study which departs significantly from the mainstream theory in that field.

Mainstream scientists typically regard fringe science as highly speculative or even as actually refuted. Fringe science theories are often advanced by persons who have no traditional academic science background, or by researchers outside the mainstream discipline. The general public has difficulty distinguishing between science and its imitators, and in some cases a "yearning to believe or a generalized suspicion of experts is a very potent incentive to accepting pseudoscientific claims".

The term "fringe science" covers everything from novel hypotheses which can be tested by means of the scientific method to wild ad hoc hypotheses and mumbo jumbo. This has resulted in a tendency to dismiss all fringe science as the domain of pseudoscientists, hobbyists, and cranks.