Comment by dinkumthinkum

This is a bit much, I think. It is impressive because it is rare for an undergraduate to make a discovery. It’s not disillusionment with the educational system; that seems pretty politically charged. Normally, undergrads are studying what has been already known and it is a small portion of them that to do so”undergrad research” and usually that does not rise to the level of publishing anything. It’s normally graduate (MS and PhD) students that do such things. Also, graduate students, particularly PhD students, are primarily concerned with research while undergrads are primarily concerned with classes (educationally anyway!). Also, it would have also been surprising, as you say, if the student had been graduated for two-months and not in graduate school to make such a discovery. So, it’s not some grand reason or indictment of society. In the end, it is just plainly uncommon.

> It is impressive because it is rare for an undergraduate to make a discovery.

Is it? Looks like every other science story of this nature is “high school student did X”, “student at university Y discovered Z”. Perhaps they are the minority, but I still feel they happen often enough that it’s not really deserving of the always mentioning that.

> It’s not disillusionment with the educational system; that seems pretty politically charged.

Any political charged statement you read there is 100% in your head. Maybe in the USA such a simple statement could be politically charged, but where I live everyone would look at you like you had just lost the plot if you suggested that response.

> So, it’s not some grand reason or indictment of society.

Again, neither was I suggesting it was, merely postulating any hypothesis that could make sense.

> In the end, it is just plainly uncommon.

Doesn’t seem uncommon enough for me to warrant the frequent emphasis, but thank you anyway for taking the time to reply.