The Internet has made everybody an expert – problem is, we really aren't

Science is difficult and research takes time. But for many people, 'doing your own research' isn’t about going through the literature, understanding the foundations of the science you are studying, and then weighing evidence from multiple independent sources. For most people, it means 'Google it until you find something you agree with'. — AFP

Other students at university would often look with envy at those of us who were doing mathematics. Whereas they had large reading lists of books to get through each week, us mathmos would get only a single worksheet per topic. And to top it all off, we would spend a lot of time playing pool.

True, we would occasionally stop to scribble something down on a torn bit of paper. But then it wouldn’t be long before we returned to the table and continued to play. “Maths sure looks easy,” they would say.