What is Science?

Science seems very misunderstood by the general public. Usually when portrayed in media "scientists" are dogmatic priests of the religion of science. "That's not scientifically possible" is the antithesis of scientist with solid observations.

Science is a very simple process: Observe - Conjecture - Predict - Test

Observation
Observation seems straightforward however the key aspects are precision and repetition. Seeing something, say a spaceship once from hundreds of miles away in a fog is a much less trustworthy observation than seeing your spouse next to you everyday.

Conjecture
Conjecture is a guess at why the observation occurred.


Predict
Prediction is essentially that if this theory is accurate what else, untested, will be true. One of the most impresive examples of this comes from Dmitri Mendeleev who used his periodic table to predict many of the qualities of germanium, gallium and scandium which had yet to be discovered.

Test
Evolution happens to be one of the strongest theories in science stronger than Newtons Laws of Gravity. Quantum mechanics were needed to replace gravity in the realm of the very small. In addition many of the smartest minds in the world have been trying for over 100 years to specifically to disprove evolution. In a proper scientific environment other people who often disagree with you will try to actively disprove your results.

This is why string theory is not really scientific, it's just not currently testable. The math is beautiful but without a way to test it is pretty much just beautiful math and philosophy. This is part of the reason why so many proponents are big on supercolliders. They need the evidence.

Now within that framework there a a few generally accepted goals:
Parsimonious: simplest explanation. eg gravity being a bunch of strings between every object in the universe and each other

Predictive: This serves as the most powerful evidence of a theory. If it can predict what will happen in other untested thing and is accurate it indicates the theory is robust

Testable: This is why science and religion grind on each other. The divine is specifically non-testable. Ah well, what sort of divine being is cruel enough to give us a way to interpret a world consistently and then expect us to ignore that ability.

Provisional: No science is proper if it cannot be updated in the face of new evidence.

Science does make some assumptions. Mainly that reality is a cohesive place in which observations can be consistent and the physical laws of reality don't change randomly.