> an earth-shaking discovery made by a man in his fifties who was barely within academia
It's stories like these that make me jump with joy inside every time I think about the wonder that is the internet and the possibilities that creates for us as a human race.
The possibility that exists by having things like free 2,000 book encylcopedias (see http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Wikipedia%3ASize_of_Wikipedia#H...) at the fingertips of nearly every human on earth is just mind boggling.
I won't be surprised if Joe Average discovers the cure for Cancer tomorrow. Or AIDS. Or our fossil fuel addiction.
In fact, I expect those things to happen sooner than most of us might think.