Science is defined as an:
"organized, systematic enterprise that gathers knowledge about the world and condenses the knowledge into testable laws and principles"
Edward. O. Wilson suggests that science possesses the following five features that distinguish it from pseudoscience;
- Repeatability : results can be duplicated and validated by independent researchers
- Economy : the adoption of the simplest and most elegant solutions; cf Occam's razor
- Mensuration : the use of universally accepted scales of measurement
- Heuristics : scientific evidence is accretionary; knowledge begets knowledge
- Consilience : that scientific explanations of phenomena are consistent with each other
Consilience: The Unity of Knowledge by Edward. O. Wilson (1998)