An 80k grant for a seemingly pointless "let's poke it with a stick and see what happens" research project is the reason why entire fields of medicine, genealogy, forensics, and more even exist.
Even with the big lightning-bolt-from-the-blue, genius big-brain ideas, you don't get the big breakthroughs without the dense network of "fart around" science. If we don't have the support (and MONEY) in place to let people go out into the world and do Research on weird minutiae that *looks* unimportant, we won't have the robust library of Weird Knowledge that bridges the gap between genius idea and the ability to physically enact that idea.
[Radiolab] The Age of Aquaticus #radiolab
https://podcastaddict.com/radiolab/episode/197133687 via @PodcastAddict
Go listen. It's incredible.
More Golden Goose awards. More IgNobels. More scientists suqealing with glee as a googly-eyed squid appears out of the darkness on a ROV camera. More time and support for those who want to just sit and tease out how and why things are.
That's how we survive, and *thrive*.
