[Reily]

Cosmology which I am sure you are alluding never ever costed billions and billions of dollars in total. Maybe for one effort at most the equivalent of a Phase I STTR ($150K-$200K) for some professor time, some grad students, a post grad or 2 & some computer time.

Even if the work/theory later goes belly-up, there are technical/engineering spin-offs (maybe not directly but indirectly!) even from something this esoteric.

[PeterPrinciple]

I understand basic research and it’s importance.

But the way of getting attention is to have an outlandish theory these days. The further out the theory, the more attention you get. It is not built on prior truths learned.

What reward do you get for proving someone else’s prior work?

Very little research is built on prior learning. The goal is getting closer to the truth.

This article was good I thought. It wants to get closer to the truth.

[PeterPrinciple]

Even if the work/theory later goes belly-up, there are technical/engineering spin-offs (maybe not directly but indirectly!) even from something this esoteric.

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The issue is which ones. how selected.

I have looked at some of the programs at science/engineering conventions. It might as well have been a comic con convention.

Take a really good look at the research coming out of our universities. This is not to say there is not any good research, but someone should have said NO to a lot of it.