alt Hacker NewsThere were https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Galectin proteins embedded in a thin lipid layer on the surface of the water. The goal was to understand what conditions triggered various conformational changes. I'm under the impression that such details end up in databases and get selected for further inquiry by drug design processes, particularly those targeting autoimmune diseases. Or at least, that's what I got from his talk on it. I'm still working my way up to the biochemistry classes.
But yeah I get your point about avoiding that delusion. Honestly I'd be happy enough to be doing something that I suspect is not actively harmful (this should be easy but SaaS tends to converge on products that control their users and not the other way around). I don't need to be humanity's savior. More helpful than harmful will be enough.
I admire your stance but consider this hypothesis: nothing is better than nonsense. Most research leads to nothing. Knowledge is better than ignorance but research funding isn't unlimited. I estimated the average biology paper to cost several hundred thousand dollars if it didn't involve animals and a million if it did. Does the parameter you find or establish even justify such a cost? Most of my and my colleagues work really didn't change anything in my opinion. Even if some of us didn't want to be useless like this, we had no choice. The system just forces you to do these projects. The only way to beat this system is to get out of it. That's what I did. I hope to start a garage lab sometime and do whatever I want as you say. At least I won't be taking public funding and I hope I might find something better without those limits after all.