Fringe science

Fringe science refers to ideas whose attributes include being highly speculative or relying on premises already refuted.^[1] The chance of ideas rejected by editors and published outside the mainstream being correct is remote.^{[2]: 58 [3]} When the general public does not distinguish between science and imitators, it risks exploitation,^[2]: 173 and in some cases, a "yearning to believe or a generalized suspicion of experts is a very potent incentive to accepting some pseudoscientific claims".^[2]: 176

The term "fringe science" covers everything from novel hypotheses, which can be tested utilizing 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 quacks.^[4]

A concept that was once accepted by the mainstream scientific community may become fringe science because of a later evaluation of previous research.^[5] For example, focal infection theory, which held that focal infections of the tonsils or teeth are a primary cause of systemic disease, was once considered to be medical fact. It has since been dismissed because of a lack of evidence.