---
title: "Fringe science"
chunk: 1/2
source: "https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Fringe_science"
category: "reference"
tags: "science, encyclopedia"
date_saved: "2026-05-05T03:43:48.153140+00:00"
instance: "kb-cron"
---

Fringe science refers to ideas whose attributes include being highly speculative or relying on premises already refuted. The chance of ideas rejected by editors and published outside the mainstream being correct is remote. When the general public does not distinguish between science and imitators, it risks exploitation, and in some cases, a "yearning to believe or a generalized suspicion of experts is a very potent incentive to accepting some pseudoscientific claims".
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.
A concept that was once accepted by the mainstream scientific community may become fringe science because of a later evaluation of previous research. 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.

== Description ==
The boundary between fringe science and pseudoscience is disputed. Friedlander writes that there is no widespread understanding of what separates science from nonscience or pseudoscience. Pseudoscience, however, is something that is not scientific but is incorrectly characterised as science.
The term may be considered pejorative. For example, Lyell D. Henry Jr. wrote, "Fringe science [is] a term also suggesting kookiness."
Continental drift was rejected for decades lacking conclusive evidence before plate tectonics was accepted.

The confusion between science and pseudoscience, between honest scientific error and genuine scientific discovery, is not new, and it is a permanent feature of the scientific landscape .... Acceptance of new science can come slowly.

== Examples ==

=== Historical ===
Some historical ideas that are considered to have been refuted by mainstream science are:

Wilhelm Reich's work with orgone, a physical energy he claimed to have discovered, contributed to his alienation from the psychiatric community. He was eventually sentenced to two years in a federal prison, where he died. At that time and continuing today, scientists disputed his claim that he had scientific evidence for the existence of orgone. Nevertheless, amateurs and a few fringe researchers continued to believe that orgone is real.
Focal infection theory (FIT), as the primary cause of systemic disease, rapidly became accepted by mainstream dentistry and medicine after World War I. This acceptance was largely based upon what later turned out to be fundamentally flawed studies. As a result, millions of people were subjected to needless dental extractions and surgeries. The original studies supporting FIT began falling out of favor in the 1930s. By the late 1950s, it was regarded as a fringe theory.
The Clovis First theory held that the Clovis culture was the first culture in North America. It was long regarded as a mainstream theory until mounting evidence of a pre-Clovis culture discredited it.

=== Modern ===
Relatively recent fringe sciences include:

Aubrey de Grey, featured in a 2006 60 Minutes special report, is studying human longevity. He calls his work "strategies for engineered negligible senescence" (SENS). Many mainstream scientists believe his research is fringe science (especially his view of the importance of nuclear epimutations and his timeline for antiaging therapeutics). In a 2005 article in Technology Review (part of a larger series), it was stated that "SENS is highly speculative. Many of its proposals have not been reproduced, nor could they be reproduced with today's scientific knowledge and technology. Echoing Myhrvold, we might charitably say that de Grey's proposals exist in a kind of antechamber of science, where they wait (possibly in vain) for independent verification. SENS does not compel the assent of many knowledgeable scientists; but neither is it demonstrably wrong."
A nuclear fusion reaction called cold fusion, which occurs near room temperature and pressure, was reported by chemists Martin Fleischmann and Stanley Pons in March 1989. Numerous research efforts at the time were unable to replicate their results. Subsequently, several scientists have worked on cold fusion or have participated in international conferences on it. In 2004, the United States Department of Energy commissioned a panel on cold fusion to reexamine the concept. They wanted to determine whether their policies should be altered because of new evidence.
The theory of abiogenic petroleum origin holds that petroleum was formed from deep carbon deposits, perhaps dating to the formation of the Earth. The ubiquity of hydrocarbons in the Solar System may be evidence that there may be more petroleum on Earth than commonly thought and that petroleum may originate from carbon-bearing fluids that migrate upward from the Earth's mantle. Abiogenic hypotheses saw a revival in the last half of the twentieth century by Russian and Ukrainian scientists. More interest was generated in the West after the 1992 publication by Thomas Gold of the journal article, "The Deep, Hot Biosphere". Gold's version of the theory is partly based on the existence of a biosphere composed of thermophile bacteria in the Earth's crust, which might explain the existence of specific biomarkers in extracted petroleum.
Young Earth creationism, asserts the Universe is under 10,000 years old, with variations, such as Gap creationism, and Old Earth creationism, offering similar propositions.
Modern flat Earth advocates assert that Samuel Rowbotham was correct, in his, 1849, pamphlet, and 1865 book, Zetetic Astronomy: The Earth not a Globe, to reject the Hellenistic (323 BCE–31 BCE) spherical earth model, for a flat disc world, centred on the North pole.
Out of India theorem - asserts Indo-European languages evolved in India, and spread to Europe through waves of pre-historic Indian immigrants.

=== Accepted as mainstream ===
Some theories that were once rejected as fringe science but were eventually accepted as mainstream science include:

Plate tectonics
The existence of Troy
Heliocentrism
Norse colonization of the Americas
The Big Bang theory
Helicobacter pylori bacteria as the causative agent of peptic ulcer disease
The germ theory of disease
Neanderthal-Homo sapiens hybridization