In a quiet New York town, an amateur scientist has constructed a fully equipped research laboratory in which to advance plant biology research. Sebastian Cocioba wears the word 'amateur' as a badge of honor. He's an educator, molecular florist, and founder at Binomica Labs, a small biology research group focusing on providing an alternative to 'exposure-driven and marketing-centric research.' Earlier this year, we sent a photographer to Sebastian's home laboratory. Our aim was to showcase the ingenuity behind the building of his lab from the ground up, assembling and repairing second-hand equipment. But as we pored over the photos and learned more about Sebastian's journey, a far more interesting story emerged: one about the role of amateur science. The word 'amateur' can carry a negative connotation, but as Forrest Mims wrote in Science magazine in 1999, the word 'retains the meaning of its French root amour, love, for amateurs do science because it's what they love to do.' Before...
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