Two hundred years ago, the cutting edge of science in much of the Western world was dominated by wealthy amateurs-- people with strong interests and science and technology, who possessed the means to finance their own research, undertake expeditions, or conduct fieldwork and experiments as part of their business. They may be coming back.

Wealthy Victorian amateurs were able to build institutions that rivaled national laboratories or observatories. According to one book on 19th-century British science, during the Victorian era

The wealthy amateur... had "the power of taking up any subject he pleases, pursuing it so long as he believes in the possibility of success." Free from the burdens of routine and possessed of "sufficient instrumental means," they could be innovators and risk-takers, moving into promising areas with new tools and abandoning worked-out fields before the professionals moved in.

These "experimental gentleman" (as they were sometimes called in British circles) or "gentlemanly specialists" (as Martin Rudwick termed them in his classic The Great Devonian Controversy) were pushed to the margins of science in the late nineteenth century, thanks largely to two factors: the professionalization of science, which made it more difficult for amateurs of all stripes to make serious contributions to science; and the growth of government support for science.

The phenomenon of "venture philanthopy," and the broader movement of new money into foundations and charitable giving, is well-documented. Often this money is targeted at specific research areas-- brain science, aging, space flight-- and is notable for being able to work without the constraints of government agencies or traditional foundations. To this we can add developments suggesting that the wealthy amateur may be making a comeback. Some data-points:

• Wayne Rosing, the former chief engineer for Google (and a former Apple and Sun executive) is backing the Las Cumbres Observatory Global Telescope Network, a global network of robotic telescopes that will allow for unbroken observation of astronomical phenomena.

• Craig Venter sailed his Sorcerer II around the world, following the route of the HMS Challenger, performing genomic analyses of microorganisms.
• Jeff Hawkins founded the Redwood Neuroscience Institute.
• Steve Jurvetson has become interested in rocketry.
• David Shaw is building a supercomputer to molecular simulation.
• Elon Musk (Paypal alum) is one of the prime movers behind the Space X initiative.

Other successful entrepreneurs have started foundations that support innovative and interdisciplinary research:

• Fred Kavli, the Norwegian-born entrepreneur, has (through the Kavli Foundation) endowed fifteen research institutes around the world, in nanoscience, neuroscience, and theoretical physics.

• Research In Motion founder Mike Lazaridis endowed the Perimeter Institute for Theoretical Physics, which is now a major center for research on cosmology, quantum gravity, and particle physics.

Some are choosing not to compete directly with government or university labs, but instead are focusing on under-exploited or risky fields where they can make a faster, bigger impact.

In this respect, wealthy amateurs resemble contemporary art collectors: as art advisor Philippe Segalot recently explained, the market-shaping collectors are "highly competitive. They want to surpass the best museums, and by collecting contemporary art you can do that, because you are quicker, richer, and more reactive-- you don't need a board of trustees to approve what you buy."

http://www.technologyreview.com/Biotech/18383/

Kavli Foundation: http://www.kavlifoundation.org/
Las Cumbres Observatory Global Telescope Network: http://lcogt.net/information
Perimeter Institute: http://www.perimeterinstitute.ca/
Alex Pang, Empire and the Sun: Victorian Solar Eclipse Expeditions (Stanford: Stanford University Press, 2002) [Google Books].