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<blockquote data-quote="Umbran" data-source="post: 6115427" data-attributes="member: 177">Here's the thing - nobody in history has ever been able to accurately predict what and where the cool and useful new bit of knowledge comes from.&nbsp; The very moment you say, &quot;I cannot imagine how this might be useful...&quot; is the moment you lose at the game of science.&nbsp; Can we guarantee that it will be a big payoff?&nbsp; No.&nbsp; But if you fail to search, you absolutely guarantee there will be no big payoff.&nbsp; So, you have to try pretty much everything.The potential of an entire planet of sentient beings and the richness of their biosphere, however, is vast.&nbsp; The number of things you don't know about them is huge.&nbsp; And the more new things you learn, the more chance you have of finding excruciatingly useful pieces of information.&nbsp; Well, presumably, you learn a whole lot about the alien biology in the process.Interesting analogy to current events.&nbsp; There are creatures on our own planet referred to as &quot;extremophiles&quot;.&nbsp; They live in environments we don't - like in the boiling water around volcanic vents on the sea floor.&nbsp; Those volcanic beasties, their ecosystem works on a different basis than the one you're used to - rather than based on photosynthesis, they're based on chemosynthesis, from heat and minerals welling up from the vents.&nbsp; These critters certainly *cannot* live on the surface of the Earth with us, at least not without a major artificial habitat.&nbsp; By your logic, that means really, there's no point studying them...But then, folks at Virginia Tech didn't listen to you, and instead discovered an enzyme from such life that may help us create a real viable hydrogen fuel infrastructure, as it allows us to take pretty much any vegetable biomass, and use it to create hydrogen fuel at modest temperatures, without having to worry about heavy metal pollution from the catalysts used.<a href="http://www.dailytech.com/Virginia+Tech+Creates+Large+Quantities+of+Hydrogen+to+Replace+Fossil+Fuels/article30286.htm" target="_blank">http://www.dailytech.com/Virginia+Tech+Creates+Large+Quantities+of+Hydrogen+to+Replace+Fossil+Fuels/article30286.htm</a>You don't know what useful bits you'll discover.&nbsp; You *cannot* know, until you bother to look.</blockquote>

[QUOTE="Umbran, post: 6115427, member: 177"] Here's the thing - nobody in history has ever been able to accurately predict what and where the cool and useful new bit of knowledge comes from. The very moment you say, "I cannot imagine how this might be useful..." is the moment you lose at the game of science. Can we guarantee that it will be a big payoff? No. But if you fail to search, you absolutely guarantee there will be no big payoff. So, you have to try pretty much everything. The potential of an entire planet of sentient beings and the richness of their biosphere, however, is vast. The number of things you don't know about them is huge. And the more new things you learn, the more chance you have of finding excruciatingly useful pieces of information. Well, presumably, you learn a whole lot about the alien biology in the process. Interesting analogy to current events. There are creatures on our own planet referred to as "extremophiles". They live in environments we don't - like in the boiling water around volcanic vents on the sea floor. Those volcanic beasties, their ecosystem works on a different basis than the one you're used to - rather than based on photosynthesis, they're based on chemosynthesis, from heat and minerals welling up from the vents. These critters certainly *cannot* live on the surface of the Earth with us, at least not without a major artificial habitat. By your logic, that means really, there's no point studying them... But then, folks at Virginia Tech didn't listen to you, and instead discovered an enzyme from such life that may help us create a real viable hydrogen fuel infrastructure, as it allows us to take pretty much any vegetable biomass, and use it to create hydrogen fuel at modest temperatures, without having to worry about heavy metal pollution from the catalysts used. [url]http://www.dailytech.com/Virginia+Tech+Creates+Large+Quantities+of+Hydrogen+to+Replace+Fossil+Fuels/article30286.htm[/url] You don't know what useful bits you'll discover. You *cannot* know, until you bother to look. [/QUOTE]

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