The Toaster Project

Here's a fun piece about an amateur scientist (among other titles), Thomas Thwaites, who made his own toaster from scratch. I saw him on The Colbert Report tonight, of which you can all try to catch a rerun, or you can watch his Ted talk here:

http://www.ted.com/talks/thomas_thwaites_how_i_built_a_toaster_from_scratch.html

It's great to see inquisitive, thoughtful minds out there who want to know how things work, even if the end product is a ridiculous fire-hazard as in this case of the toaster. Amateur scientists are an untapped resource full of good ideas and are unfairly silent due to their unfamiliarity with the entrenched publication system of academia. Hopefully opening up science can provide the platform amateur scientists need to share their data and ideas.