Around 1800 or so, you could order a box of insects from the colonies, spend time carefully describing each, publish, and in so doing, with comparatively minima

Around 1800 or so, you could order a box of insects from the colonies, spend time carefully describing each, publish, and in so doing, with comparatively minimal effort, be a scientist. But the low-hanging fruit has largely been picked now, and for non-scientists, the barrier to joining in, to contribute something meaningful, is so much higher now that it may appear that everything is now known. Indeed, the things that are not known are so far outside the realm of everyday experience that non-scientists aren't even aware of the questions anymore. Interestingly, some companies have programs that let you experience being a 'citizen scientist' for yourself. As one example I'm aware of, https://taxonexpeditions.com/ https://taxonexpeditions.com/