It turns out their "wasteful" research serves a purpose.

But let us not mislead the public about the significance of individual, incremental steps in the arc of science, nor promulgate the notion that "crowdsourcing" scientific discovery will get us where we need to go.

On July 14 (Bastille Day for my colleagues in France), astronomers the world over will be closely watching their computers as NASA's New Horizons Pluto-Kuiper Belt Mission probe will come within "approach" distance and fly by the dwarf planet Pluto and its largest moon, Charon.