[lincolnq]

I think the difference is that we have models that actually predict things. Science isn't just "combine stuff and see what happens" - it's "test hypotheses that lead to generalizable, simple models". We can see that apples fall from trees and predict that the future apples will fall, but science allows us to realize that that's the same mechanism which causes the sun to rise and set.

[falcolas]

"Science is a systematic enterprise that builds and organizes knowledge in the form of testable explanations and predictions about the universe."[1]

Newton speculated about mass and gravity in the absence of knowledge or speculation of atomic interaction, and it's considered to be a scentific discovery... why couldn't the discovery of the effect of small particles of gold and silver in glass, and its practical application thereof, in the absence of knowledge of the electron behavior be any different?

[beernutz]

I think actually it was considered a scientific Theory. A theory in scientific terms is (I hope I get this correct) a hypothesis made from observable facts, that has stood up to many experiments that had potential to falsify it.