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by eutropia 954 days ago
experiments are not pseudoscience; we teach kids science via science fair projects doing very similar types of experiments.

Pseudoscience is generally when you have an explanation for something but no evidence, and generalize that theory to explain too much

1 comments

No, experimenting is not pseudoscience, but taking a single flawed experiment communicated anecdotally with no mention of setup or control and then moving into discussion about the "results" as if it was performed in any way reproducibly is pseudoscience. It presents itself as science but when you pick it apart it's actually lacking many mainstays of what we'd call scientific methodology.
It's not necessarily false, it's just less rigorous.

So we can call it light science. Or amateur science?

People shouldn't be discouraged from practicing science.

Or we could call it pseudoscience? The rigour is what makes it science. Maybe it's false, maybe it's not, but right now we can only speculate.

I'm not discouraging anyone; in fact, I'm encouraging repeating the experiment with more rigour, that is calling for more science.