---
title: "List of topics characterized as pseudoscience"
chunk: 2/18
source: "https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/List_of_topics_characterized_as_pseudoscience"
category: "reference"
tags: "science, encyclopedia"
date_saved: "2026-05-05T03:29:53.539791+00:00"
instance: "kb-cron"
---

=== Earth sciences ===

Megalithic geometry or 366 geometry – posits the existence of an Earth-based geometry dating back to at least 3500 BCE and the possibility that such a system is still in use in modern Freemasonry. According to proponents, megalithic civilizations in Britain and Brittany had advanced knowledge of geometry and the size of Earth. The megalithic yard is correlated to the polar circumference of Earth using a circle divided into 366 degrees.
The Bermuda Triangle – a region of the Atlantic Ocean that lies between Bermuda, Puerto Rico and (in its most popular version) Florida. Ship and aircraft disasters and disappearances perceived as frequent in this area have led to the circulation of stories of unusual natural phenomena, paranormal encounters and interactions with extraterrestrials.
Climate change denial –  involves denial, dismissal, unwarranted doubt or contrarian views which depart from the scientific consensus on climate change, including the extent to which it is caused by humans, its impacts on nature and human society, or the potential of adaptation to global warming by human actions.
Flood geology – creationist form of geology that advocates most of the geologic features on Earth are explainable by a global flood.
The Hollow Earth – a proposal that Earth is either entirely hollow or consists of hollow sections beneath the crust. Certain folklore and conspiracy theories hold this idea and suggest the existence of subterranean life.
Welteislehre, a.k.a. the World Ice Theory or Glacial Cosmogony – ice is proposed to be the basic substance of all cosmic processes and ice moons, ice planets and the "global ether" (also made of ice) had determined the entire development of the universe.
The Expanding Earth or growing Earth was a hypothesis attempting to explain the position and relative movement of continents by increase in the volume of Earth. With the recognition of plate tectonics in 20th century, the idea has been abandoned and considered a pseudoscience.

=== Physics ===
Autodynamics – a physics theory proposed in the 1940s that claims the equations of the Lorentz transformation are incorrectly formulated to describe relativistic effects, which would invalidate Einstein's theories of special relativity and general relativity, and Maxwell's equations. The theory is discounted by the mainstream physics community.
E-Cat – a claimed cold fusion reactor.
Einstein–Cartan–Evans theory – a unified theory of physics proposed by Myron Wyn Evans which claims to unify general relativity, quantum mechanics and electromagnetism. The hypothesis was largely published in the journal Foundations of Physics Letters between 2003 and 2005; in 2008, the editor published an editorial note effectively retracting the journal's support for the hypothesis due to incorrect mathematical claims.
Electrogravitics – claimed to be an unconventional type of effect or anti-gravity propulsion created by an electric field's effect on a mass. The name was coined in the 1920s by Thomas Townsend Brown, who first described the effect and spent most of his life trying to develop it and sell it as a propulsion system. Follow-ups on the claims (R. L. Talley in a 1990 U.S. Air Force study, NASA scientist Jonathan Campbell in a 2003 experiment and Martin Tajmar in a 2004 paper) have found that no thrust could be observed in a vacuum, consistent with the phenomenon of ion wind.
Free energy – a class of perpetual motion that purports to create energy (violating the first law of thermodynamics) or extract useful work from equilibrium systems (violating the second law of thermodynamics).
Water-fueled cars – an instance of perpetual motion machines. Such devices are claimed to use water as fuel or produce fuel from water on board with no other energy input. Many such claims are part of investment frauds.
Gasoline pill or gasoline powder, which was claimed to turn water into gasoline.
Hongcheng Magic Liquid – a scam in China in which Wang Hongcheng (Chinese: 王洪成; pinyin: Wáng Hóngchéng), a bus driver from Harbin with no scientific education, claimed in 1983 that he could turn regular water into a fuel as flammable as petrol by simply dissolving a few drops of his liquid in it.
Hydrinos (Randell L. Mills/Brilliant Light Power Inc.) – a supposed state of the hydrogen atom that, according to Mills, is of lower energy than ground state and has extremely high efficiency as a fuel. Critics say it lacks corroborating scientific evidence and is a relic of cold fusion. Critical analysis of the claims have been published in the peer-reviewed journals Physics Letters A, New Journal of Physics, Journal of Applied Physics, and Journal of Physics D: Applied Physics stating that the proposed hydrino states are unphysical and incompatible with key equations of quantum mechanics.
Orgone – a pseudoscientific concept described as an esoteric energy or hypothetical universal life force, originally proposed in the 1930s.

== Applied sciences ==