Discover Magazine includes amateur scientists in its prestigious list of "Best Brains in Science."
(Media-Newswire.com) - Amateur scientists are among the "50 Best Brains in Science" according to Discover Magazine. "We conferred with leading academics and unleashed a team of crack researchers to seek out the best of the best" reports the cover story of the December issue, which is devoted to "the individuals who are making the most important contributions to American science."
"I’m delighted, of course, but not at all surprised." That was the reaction of Shawn Carlson, the Founder and Executive Director of the Society for Amateur Scientists ( SAS ). The list includes three members of the SAS.
"We’ve been championing the uncommon genius of the common citizen for 14 years. And ordinary people have been making extraordinary contributions to science for a whole lot longer than that," said Carlson. His society encourages and publicizes the scientific achievements and activities of people who practice science largely on their own and often without the benefit of an earned science degree.
Discover’s list includes Forrest M. Mims III, editor of the Society’s online monthly, The Citizen Scientist. Mims is cited for his prolific writings and many discoveries. He has described his original atmospheric research in Nature and a dozen other leading scientific journals, often with professional scientists as co-authors. Mims also co-founded the company that built the first successful personal computer, which became the platform for the launch of Microsoft by Bill Gates and Paul Allen. He recently completed a 270,000-word history of Hawaii’s Mauna Loa Observatory for the National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration.
Discover also cited Ely Silk, a retired business owner and former IBM programmer, for his development of an inexpensive fluorescent microscope. According to Discover, the microscope "is affordable enough for almost any high school biology lab or rural medical facility."
The third SAS member to make the list is Bill Hilton Jr., a former high school biology teacher, who is cited for his 25-year record of banding tens of thousands of birds at the Hilton Pond Center for Piedmont natural History. Hilton, who writes a monthly column in The Citizen Scientist, specializes in hummingbirds and is the founder of Operation Ruby Throat. He leads annual expeditions of amateur scientists and teachers to Costa Rica for the purpose of banding overwintering hummingbirds.
Several other amateur scientists were also recognized by Discover as "Best Brains in Science," but, according to Carlson, one was not listed in the amateur science section. "Bill Gates built a software empire based on technology, but never graduated from college. He’s one of us, too."
When asked whether Discover missed any amateurs who should be on the list, Carlson said "Oh, yes! Jack Horner of the Museum of the Rockies is arguably the greatest living paleontologist. He never graduated from college. Another strong candidate is John Powell who founded J.P. Aerospace. He is developing ingenious low-cost ways to put payloads and people into orbit."
The non-amateur scientists on the Discover list include luminaries such as Physicist Stephen Hawking, Neil DeGrasse Tyson of the Hayden Planetarium and PBS’s NOVA, NASA Administrator Michael Griffin, Harold Varmus of the National Institutes of Health, and Google founders Larry Page and Sergey Brin.
The SAS website can be found at sas.org The Citizen Scientist is at sas.org/tcs.
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