Government and private organizations, foundations, and other groups that provide scientists with the funds they need to do their research. To learn more, visit Supporting science.

To perform a test showing that a particular claim or scientific idea is false. The idea that science relies solely on falsification is based on Karl Popper’s influential account of scientific justification, which suggests that science can only reject, or falsify, hypotheses — that science cannot find evidence that supports one idea over others. In fact, science can never once-and-for-all prove that a particular idea is false (or true) and both supporting and refuting evidence may contribute to our evaluation of a scientific idea. To learn more, visit our misconception on the topic.

A perceived or real media bias, in which opposing viewpoints are given similar weight though the evidence more strongly supports one viewpoint. To learn more, visit Beware of false balance.

Statement that is known to be true through direct observation. Since scientific ideas are inherently tentative, the term fact is more meaningful in everyday language than in the language of science. To learn more, visit our misconception on the topic.