[xiaoma]

Michael Faraday solved about as many difficult problems as any scientist in history and did it without a formal education. And in his time there were even more barrier to working class people joining academia than there are now.

Skills and an apprenticeship under the right mentor trump the piece of paper in terms of real world results. It's really tough for more conservative types to realize this until the researcher in question is so famous that they no longer have a chance of hiring them, though.

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Michael_Faraday