Me too. Hence the "practicing such science" part in my comment. University degrees such as Master of Science/Doctor of Philosophy etc. are meant to provide validation from universities that the holder of such degrees has had some training in the discipline but it's by no means a requirement to be a scientist (Leonardo da Vinci certainly didn't have a PhD).
In theory, yes. But when it comes to highly specialized topics, there are a number of things that are very hard to learn on your own (at least for now) without going through an academic path. Chemistry, Biology, pretty much require hands-on experience as part of your education - and you can't do that kind of things from home or simply by reading books.
You can teach an 8-year kid the scientific method so they can "do science" with household chemicals. Probably they won't discover anything novel, but assuming they don't look at the internet it will be new to them and that's the important bit: reasoning about truth on the basis of experimental observation.
