Americans love an underdog. Bonus points for an underdog pitted against an authority figure. Extra bonus points when that authority figure is in academia. The

Americans love an underdog. Bonus points for an underdog pitted against an authority figure. Extra bonus points when that authority figure is in academia. The attraction of this tale isn't that Smith got a bad grade on the paper or even that he was a mediocre student, but rather that a scrappy undergrad had a great idea but his prof couldn't see the genius of it.