Yes, but does it have any application - any touch with reality? Years ago when I was in grad school (Nuc Engr) I had a couple of very interesting talks with professors about my future (testing and grades); both told me to stay the course that there was a huge disconnect between research and application, and I was good at connecting it. Unguided research with no probable application by people with no sense of how the world really works is generally money and time wasted. Sometimes something comes of it - enough monkeys, typewriters, time and they type out a coherent document.
One current misguided research project is climate change. The basic problem is nobody knows the norm. Example: I inherited a nice clothes washer with this house, but it doesn't work right - that much I can deduce. I ordered a part (shift actuator) and replaced it today - that's where I started because it is apparently a generic problem, fit symptoms, and it was a $50 part whereas the control board is $300+. So the washer made it through to the end of the "Normal" cycle; that's an improvement, but it's still not right. I don't really know the definition of "right" because I never used the washer in it's normal state - never heard normal noises and never saw normal actions. My senses say that because water went in during the rinse cycle and stuff didn't get swished around before the spin, it just ain't right - the controls are scrambled. So next step is pull the control board, inspect for faulty components and solder joints - if I find and can fix then do that and pop it back in - if nothing changes or there's no evidence of bad soldering or components then a new board is in order. I've worked on electro/mechanical stuff enough over the years to have a decent handle on how things work; unguided research fails that test no matter how brilliant the researchers.
