For example, one amateur proposed to study the facial expression of gophers under extreme pain by developing a device that would chop the animals' heads off the moment they emerged from their holes and drop them directly into a vat of liquid nitrogen so that their expressions would be preserved.

Carlson says that even after talking with the man, he could not determine whether he was serious.

But the most difficult part of his work is dealing with amateurs who make earnest but misguided proposals. His job is to provide thorough and rigorous evaluation of proposed research projects, even if that feedback is negative.

"We throw a lot of cold water on projects," he says. "We're not an organization that says, 'Come to us and everything will always be rosy.' Our promise is that we'll give you an accurate assessment. We lose a lot of members because of this."

Despite the occasional crazy person in the amateur bunch, Carlson suggests that it is the arrogance of some academics that causes them to be skeptical of amateurs.

"You run into some professionals who are absolutely against amateurs," he said. "Some people have enormous amount of ego. Some Harvard professors have an enormous amount of ego invested in the fact that they are Harvard professors."