Fringe science refers to ideas whose attributes include being highly speculative or relying on premises already refuted.
The connotation of "fringe science" is that the enterprise is rational but is unlikely to produce good results for various reasons, including incomplete or contradictory evidence.
"[6] This characterization is perhaps inspired by the eccentric behavior of many researchers of the kind known colloquially (and with considerable historical precedent) as mad scientists.
[2]: 172 One example of such is plate tectonics, an idea which had its origin in the fringe science of continental drift and was rejected for decades.
She describes all of them as trying to make sense of the world using the scientific method but in the face of being unable to understand modern science's complex theories.
[30] As Donald E. Simanek asserts, "Too often speculative and tentative hypotheses of cutting edge science are treated as if they were scientific truths, and so accepted by a public eager for answers."