Ah, but you assume there is no practical need to delve so close when by doing so we have already made incredible strides in practical uses for what we have discovered. Respectfully,
AuldSoul
No, I would put it a different way.
Man didn't have a "practical" reason to go to the moon and probably went too many times. But, the fallout from the technology developed to get him there and back safely trickled down to the rest of us in extraordinary advancements in computers and microtechnology, etc.
Locally here in Fort Worth/Dallas a huge facility was going to be built a number of years ago; a Superconducting Supercollider. Lavish spending of tax money on office decorations caused a scandal and the whole project was scrapped. Fact of the matter is there would have undoubtedly have been some trickle down benefits in nanontechnology and who knows what else had the facility and the experiments been green-lighted.
I'm not against science or investigation whatsoever. But, I am not so easily fooled that it is pretty much a noble profession and a straight line from ignorance to mastery of the universe.
We must have science. It is the only thing which has kept the Western world in a strong enough condition to fend off the radicals in the Eastern world. But, the seeds of much of the philosophical mindset inherent in the leaders of the scientific community is riddled with mysticism.
T.