Out of the lab and onto the streets

Austen talks about scientific revolution. Over the centuries, science became institutionalized. At first, though, there was plenty of room for the unaffiliated amateur--the likes of Darwin or Einstein. Now there's a revolution going on. All one need is a bit of spare time, and stable telecommunications. Millions of people have access to swathes of scientific information thanks to the Internet, open-access publishing and servers dishing up drafts of scientific papers before they are formally published, with or without peer review.