"The judges couldn't tell the impostor from one of their own. Collins argues that he is therefore as qualified as anyone to discuss this field, even though he can't conduct experiments in it."

The amount of knowledge that can be acquired by dedicated laypersons these days is truly incredible. Certainly astronomy has had its fair share of amateur discoveries. And that's a major reason why Wikipedia works, particularly on the filtering end of things. I'm as tired of experts decrying popular opinion as worthless as I am of Wikipedians decrying expert opinion as worthless.

Ari