citizen scientists: Thomas Jefferson is the archetype of the gentleman scholar. Benjamin Franklin invented bifocals when he got tired of switching between two pairs of glasses and of course, famously flew a kite in a lightning storm to discover the principles of electricity. Edward Jenner discovered inoculation and performed the first vaccination against smallpox. Jenner’s case is especially important as it highlights the power of user innovation. As a country doctor, Jenner observed that milkmaids who interacted with cattle infected with cowpox did not contract smallpox. He then transferred pus from a milkmaid to a young boy, completely protecting him from smallpox. The medical establishment was reluctant to accept the findings of a “lowly” country physician, but eventually Jenner prevailed. Thomas Edison also partially fits the descriptor of Citizen-Scientist but, because he was, frankly, a bit of a bastard (see his feud with Tesla and other abusive monopolistic industrial practices), his example is not one we want to encourage under the new Open Science paradigm.
Most importantly, in the 21st century, for the first time, the plummeting costs of technology enable anyone to be a citizen scientist, whereas the classic citizen scientists of the first enlightenment were all wealthy men who had the time and resources to conduct experiments.
(crowdsourced microfinance to harness collective intelligence and allow the public to directly support projects rather than route everything through a bureaucratic grant system)
In the words of futurist Buckminster Fuller: “In contradistinction to the esteem in which world society now holds them, scientists are the most confused and irresponsible human beings now alive. They lay “eggs” —and the businessman sells the eggs to the politicians and the politicians “scramble” or “drop” or “easy-over” those eggs as we hurtle toward oblivion. If our lives are left to their care we will all soon be dead.” (Utopia or Oblivion)