Michael “Skeptic” Shermer in Scientific American:Baloney Detection — hints to distinguish science from pseudo-science:

  • How reliable is the source of the claim?
  • Does this source often make similar claims?
  • Have the claims been verified by another source?
  • How does the claim fit with what we know about how the world works?
  • Has anyone gone out of the way to disprove the claim, or has only supportive evidence been sought?

And in part II:

  • Does the preponderance of evidence point to the claimant’s conclusion or to a different one?
  • Is the claimant employing the accepted rules of reason and tools of research, or have these been abandoned in favor of others that lead to the desired conclusion?
  • Is the claimant providing an explanation for the observed phenomena or merely denying the existing explanation?
  • If the claimant proffers a new explanation, does it account for as many phenomena as the old explanation did?
  • Do the claimant’s personal beliefs and biases drive the conclusions, or vice versa?