The essence of science is this: you ask a question and then collect data to answer that question. That is science. It’s a process. It’s a verb. To science.

With science, the data can’t just be collected higgily-piggily. There must be an approved method and that method must be systematic. There are many systematic methods that can be used to collect the data used to answer questions. And there are many types of data to collect. Hence, there is no single scientific method; rather, there are methods of science.

An important distinction to be made between science and pseudo-science:

Science – asks a question and then collects data to answer the question.

Pseudo-science starts with the answer, and then collects data to support that answer.