> "If you handed down the Scientific Method to someone who is not a trained scientist, in theory they should be use it to derive new laws of nature. In practice, though, what would most likely happen is that they would mis-apply this method and come up with all sorts of crackpot theories about perpetual motion machines and life-altering magnetic bracelets"

What!? I pretty clearly remember being able to apply the scientific method properly in grammar school. The conclusions we reached may not have been earth shattering, but they were valid, because we followed the steps.