Major scientific advances are often linked to unusual freedom. Mendel's job as a monk gave him botanical freedom. His colleagues didn't care about his pea plants nor what he wrote about them. Likewise, Charles Darwin could write whatever he wanted, unlike biology professors. His wealth and lack of job meant he had little to lose. Alfred Wegener, who proposed continental drift, was a meteorologist, not a geologist. His geological heresy surely didn't bother his colleagues. Mendel, Darwin, and Wegener illustrate Dyson's point about the freedom of hobbyists.
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