If all the words written to answer this question were laid end to end, you probably still wouldn't get a straight answer.
Science is what scientists do.
This is not an evasive answer. What qualifies as a scientifically interesting problem is then defined by the judgement of practicing scientists. Science is a social construction of scientists, who jealously guard the perceived accuracy of each others' results by constant questioning and correction. It's about 100 pages long, and while a junior high school student may find it a little difficult, I think it is well and clearly written. I would caution you that Polanyi's ideas have been distorted beyond recognition by the more extreme post-modernists , who contend that, because all human knowledge is socially constructed, none of it can have any claim to truth.