system
Given the following post, respond as if you're commenting on Reddit:
human
What are some areas of science that can still be added to by a hobby scientist a la Sir Isaac Newton?

If someone had a strong scientific/ technical background but wanted to pursue research as a hobby rather than strictly a profession as the "gentleman scientists" of yore did.

I know of the DIYBIO movement, etc. If you were going to attempt to contribute some meaningful scientific knowledge to the world, what area of science/technology would you immerse yourself in purely for enjoyment? What skill sets would you want to develop?
gpt
The area a single hobbyist is most likely to contribute to (IMO) is anything computational.

It seems limiting, but you can work in almost any field via computing.  You can work on computational physics problems, simulate chemical reactions, model infectious disease, analyze the human genome, mine behavioral data using search engines, etc.

The beautiful thing about computing is that computers are dirt cheap and there are an unbelievable amount of resources for programmers, for free, on the internet.