https://en.wikipedia.org/w/index.php?title=List_of_topics_characterized_as_pseudoscience&oldid=1131342377


=== 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.<ref name='Wired'>{{cite news|first=Kristen |last=Philipkoski |title=Shedding Light in the Dark |date=1999-07-13 |url=https://www.wired.com/science/discoveries/news/1999/07/20663 |work=[[Wired News|Wired]] |access-date=2008-02-07 |url-status=dead |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20090110183905/http://www.wired.com/science/discoveries/news/1999/07/20663 |archive-date=2009-01-10 }}</ref>
* '''[[E-Cat]]''' – a claimed cold fusion reactor.<ref name="patent_app">Patent application {{cite patent |country=WO |number=2009125444 |title=Method and Apparatus for carrying out nickel and hydrogen exothermal reactions |inventor=Andrea Rossi |pubdate=2009-10-15 }}</ref><ref name="zyga">{{cite news|author=Zyga, Lisa|date=2011-08-11|url=http://www.physorg.com/news/2011-08-controversial-energy-generating-lacking-credibility-video.html|title=Controversial energy-generating system lacking credibility (w/ video)|work= [[PhysOrg]]}}</ref>
* '''[[Einstein–Cartan–Evans theory]]''' – a unified theory of physics proposed by Myron Wyn Evans which claims to unify general relativity, quantum mechanics and electromagnetism.<ref name=AIAS>{{citation |title= Alpha Institute for Advanced Studies (AIAS) |url= http://www.aias.us/|access-date=22 August 2017}}: "ECE Theory was discovered by chemist, physicist, and mathematician, Myron Wyn Evans...".<!--Also: "Many a good Welshman and many of the world's finest scientists have had difficulties like yours."--></ref> 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.<ref>{{cite journal|last1='t Hooft|first1=Gerard|s2cid=189843269|author-link1=Gerard 't Hooft|title=Editorial note|journal=Foundations of Physics|volume=38|issue=1|year=2008|pages=1–2|issn=0015-9018|doi=10.1007/s10701-007-9187-8|bibcode=2008FoPh...38....1T}}</ref>
* '''[[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<ref>{{Cite news | magazine = Wired Magazine | date = August 2003 | title = The Antigravity Underground | last = Thompson | first = Clive | url = https://www.wired.com/wired/archive/11.08/pwr_antigravity.html }}</ref> and [[Martin Tajmar]] in a 2004 paper<ref>{{Cite journal | last1 = Tajmar | first1 = M. | s2cid = 3776302 | title = Biefeld-Brown Effect: Misinterpretation of Corona Wind Phenomena | journal = AIAA Journal | volume = 42 | issue = 2 | pages = 315–318 | year = 2004 | doi = 10.2514/1.9095|bibcode = 2004AIAAJ..42..315T }}</ref>) have found that no thrust could be observed in a vacuum, consistent with the phenomenon of ion wind.
* '''[[Free energy suppression|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]]).<ref>{{cite book|author-link= Robert L. Park |first= Robert L. |last= Park|title=Voodoo Science|publisher=Oxford University Press|location=US|isbn=978-0195147100|title-link= Voodoo Science |year= 2000 }}</ref><ref name=Milbank>{{cite news|last=Milbank|first=Dana|title=There's the Red Vote, the Blue Vote…and the Little Green Vote|newspaper=The Washington Post|date=18 September 2007|url=https://www.washingtonpost.com/wp-dyn/content/article/2007/09/17/AR2007091701780.html|quote=…the aliens' advanced technology, which uses nonpolluting fuel, could revolutionize the transport of goods and people on this planet and rejuvenate the biosphere.}}</ref>
:* '''[[Electricity theft#Inductive Coupling|Energy Theft]]''' - often mistaken for [[perpetual motion]], but which (instead) steals energy from the grid,<ref name="currenttrans">[https://skeptics.stackexchange.com/questions/3520/is-it-possible-to-obtain-current-indirectly-from-power-lines Is it possible to obtain current indirectly from power lines?] Skeptics, StackExchange</ref> or from the environment,<ref name="negdamping">[https://www.researchgate.net/publication/324978006_Low_Frequency_Oscillations_in_Indian_Grid Low Frequency Oscillations in Indian Grid.] Negative damping of an under-damped power grid in India suggests energy theft from the environment &ndash; ResearchGate.</ref> or both.<ref name="ammann">[https://fuel-efficient-vehicles.org/energy-news/?page_id=971 The Oversight of the Ammann Brothers'] Fuel Efficient Vehicle<br/><blockquote>''&ldquo;While Earl was demonstrating his invention all over the streets of Denver, the power had been cut off in the foothills. In spite of this, when he went to Washington DC shortly afterward to try to obtain a patent on his Cosmo Electric Generator, he found that charges had been filed against him claiming he had a device to steal power from the power lines.&rdquo;''<br/>K. H. Isselstein,<br/>Spokane, WA</blockquote></ref>
:* '''[[Water-fueled car]]s''' – 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 fraud]]s.<ref name="Times">{{cite news |first=Tony |last=Edwards |title= End of road for car that ran on Water |url= http://groups.google.com/group/sci.energy.hydrogen/msg/8ee0acb80e943e21?hl=endc310437cd1cee1e7&|work=[[The Sunday Times (UK)|The Sunday Times]] |publisher= Times Newspapers Limited|page= Features 12|date=1 December 1996|access-date=22 May 2019}}</ref><ref>State of New Jersey Department of Law and Public Safety [http://www.nj.gov/oag/newsreleases06/pr20061109d.html press release], 9 November 2006</ref><ref name="Dingel">{{cite news|url=http://newsinfo.inquirer.net/inquirerheadlines/nation/view/20081220-179008/Inventor-82-gets-20-years-for-estafa|title=Inventor, 82, gets 20 years for 'estafa'|last=Lopez|first=Allison|date=20 December 2008|newspaper=Philippine Daily Inquirer|access-date=22 May 2019|url-status=dead|archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20081226045539/http://newsinfo.inquirer.net/inquirerheadlines/nation/view/20081220-179008/Inventor-82-gets-20-years-for-estafa|archive-date=26 December 2008}}</ref>
:* '''[[Gasoline pill]]''' or ''gasoline powder'', which was claimed to turn water into gasoline.<ref name="nydailynews.com 2008">{{cite web | title=Don't get caught in 'Net gas scams | website=Daily News|location=New York | date=2008-06-02 | url=https://www.nydailynews.com/life-style/don-caught-net-gas-scams-article-1.293609 | access-date=2019-05-22}}</ref>
:* '''[[Hongcheng Magic Liquid]]''' – a scam in China where 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.<ref name="csicop_hongcheng">{{cite web|title=Paranormal in China |author=Wu Xianghong |work=Skeptical Briefs newsletter |publisher=[[CSICOP]] |date=March 2005 |url=http://www.csicop.org/sb/9503/china.html |url-status=dead |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20081121210512/http://www.csicop.org/sb/9503/china.html |archive-date=21 November 2008}}</ref>
* '''[[Brilliant Light Power|Hydrinos]]''' – a supposed state of the [[hydrogen atom]] that, according to its proponent, is of lower energy than [[ground state]] and has extremely high efficiency as a fuel.<ref name="parkorigin">{{cite web |title=What's New Friday, 26 April 1991 Washington, DC |author=Robert L. Park |url=http://bobpark.physics.umd.edu/WN91/wn042691.html |date=26 April 1991 |access-date=17 May 2009 |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20110927142638/http://bobpark.physics.umd.edu/WN91/wn042691.html |archive-date=27 September 2011 |url-status=dead }} and {{cite web |title=What's New Friday, October 31, 2008 |author=Robert L. Park |url=http://bobpark.physics.umd.edu/WN08/wn103108.html |date=31 October 2008 |access-date=17 May 2009 |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20110927142645/http://bobpark.physics.umd.edu/WN08/wn103108.html |archive-date=27 September 2011 |url-status=dead }}</ref> 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.<ref name="dombey">
{{cite journal|journal=Physics Letters A |last=Dombey |first=Norman |s2cid=119011776 |title=The hydrino and other unlikely states |volume=360 |issue=1 |pages=62–65 |arxiv=physics/0608095 |date=8 August 2006 |doi=10.1016/j.physleta.2006.07.069
 |bibcode = 2006PhLA..360...62D }}</ref>
*'''[[Orgone]]''' – a pseudoscientific concept described as an [[Energy (esotericism)|esoteric energy]] or hypothetical universal [[Energy (esotericism)|life force]], originally proposed in the 1930s.<ref>Kenneth S. Isaacs (psychoanalyst), 1999: "Orgone—a useless fiction with faulty basic premises, thin partial theory, and unsubstantiated application results. It was quickly discredited and cast away."[[doi:10.1023/A:1021973219022|Isaacs 1999]], p.&nbsp;240.</ref><ref name="blumenfeld">{{citation|author=Robert Blumenfeld|title=Tools and techniques for character interpretation: a handbook of psychology for actors, writers, and directors|url=https://books.google.com/books?id=YLxfnPc3lskC|pages=135–137|year=2006|series=Limelight Series|chapter=Chapter 6. Willian Reich and Character Analysis|publisher=Hal Leonard Corporation|isbn=978-0879103262}}</ref>