alt Hacker NewsSome would say that science can be valuable even when it does not produce commercially viable results. Making money is not the pinnacle of human experience.
Some would say that science can be valuable even when it does not produce commercially viable results. Making money is not the pinnacle of human experience.
There are plenty of scientific results that make us lose money. Un-leading our paint and gasoline, climate change, even just eating fresh fruits and veg.
The main reason why the uninteresting results in science are always valuable is that negative knowledge is still knowledge. Every idea that gets kicked around and tested was something that would probably have been interesting, so knowing that it's most likely a dead end is worth knowing.
Long live the Ig Nobel Prize! I wish we had a Epic Fail prize equivalent where to honor genuinely nonsensical, failed science experiments because they're often still worth doing.