History's Five Most Important Amateur Scientists

"These days it seems you've got to have a PhD and decades of research experience before anyone will take you seriously as a scientist."

"Despite the difficulty amateurs have in discovering new scientific truths, and their even greater problems getting them published, the canon of scientific knowledge has been greatly expanded by people without an advanced scientific education. Amateur science has a long history, and in today's education obsessed world of science we can forget that many of the greatest scientific discoveries were made by amateurs with a passionate personal interest in their subject."

So begins a blog installment on "The 5 Most Important Amateur Scientists" by Robert at Environmental Grafitti (March 18, 2008).

The blog devotes a paragraph and a photo to Michael Faraday, Gregor Mendel, Thomas Edison, Robert Evans and Henrietta Swan Leavitt. Many more famous amateur scientists could be added to this list, including Benjamin Franklin, Thomas Jefferson, and the Wright brothers. But at least it begins with one of the greatest amateur scientists of all time.

Forrest M. Mims III