George Green and physics

Although George Green was born 200 years ago, his life and work exemplify two themes that are still highly relevant to the progress and public understanding of science. The first theme is the perennial and usually unsuccessful struggle to keep the doors of the temple of science open to amateurs and outsiders. George Green was a prime example of an amateur and outsider, someone without any official academic credentials, beating the insiders at their own game. He was lucky to have lived in the early nineteenth century rather than in the late twentieth century. He was, in spite of his social and educational deficiencies, allowed to enter the temple, and his achievements were recognised by the insiders. If George Green were living today, since science has become professionalised and the Ph D has become a necessary ticket for admission to the temple, he would have encountered much more formidable barriers to his ambitions. The insiders are now defending their turf against outsiders with bureaucratic weapons unknown in the 1830s.