March 24, 2017 --The days when a chemist's assistant like Michael Faraday or a friar like Gregor Mendel could single-handedly revolutionize a field of science may seem long gone, but one British student is showing the world that anyone can play a role in research. This week NASA is feeling grateful to the sharp eyes of 17-year-old Miles Soloman of Sheffield, England, who was able to help uncover a faulty sensor on board the International Space Station (ISS) when he noticed some wacky readings in a data spreadsheet. His findings add to a long history of amateurs making real contributions to science, a phenomenon many researchers are eager to encourage. Miles's physics teacher, James O'Neill, had no idea what was going to happen when he enrolled his class in the TimPix project from the Institute for Research in Schools (IRIS), an initiative that provides classes with data collected from a radiation detector on board the ISS. By studying the data sets, students can learn about energy and "contribute to research that will improve our understanding of radiation in space," IRIS wrote on their website.