The term citizen science refers to research that is conducted by or with individual or groups of non-scientists.

The tradition of amateur scientists of people who are not professionals in the fields that

they're researching is a rich tradition, and countless important discoveries have been made

by people who follow other callings,

but for whom experimentation and discovery has been a hobby, something that they've done on the side,

and fields as diverse as astronomy, ornithology, oceanography, art history, computer science, seismology,

and even pharmaceutical research, have benefited from

the efforts of non-professionals over the years. Before the 20th century, a great deal of groundbreaking

research, and a great deal of tedious, not sexy, but still vital research, was done by

so-called gentlemen scientists, a group that,

importantly, also included numerous women, and which almost exclusively referred to wealthy people

who could self-fund their research. There were still discoveries being made within individual

trades, bakers slowly but surely iterating their craft, figuring out the designs for better

ovens, better recipes for their bread, and so on.

But many of the non-practical, theoretical discoveries and ideas were posited by people

who could afford not to work, or who could afford to take the time outside of work

to think about such things, and who could afford things like books and expensive tutelage

and high-end equipment, and who could afford trips to exotic places and to pay the bills

while they visited knowledgeable people around the world, or while they

sat for years with their noses in books, or on the sky, or on the world around them.

In the 19th century, scientific methodology was systematized, which is what allowed for the modern

scientific process, with variables and control groups

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