It seems practicality and general need are not key criteria for determining research topics and funding.
This is the statement that indicates you don't know what you're talking about.
Those things are not key criteria for a reason. It's because most of the time you never know what applications your research will have. Yes there is directed research. But the real science lies in pure research, not aiming at any end. An end in mind only constrains research, limiting and attenuating the body of knowledge obtained.
Really, there is no "pointless" research. There is research that ends up being pointless, but you cannot make that supposition before hand.
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"For thousands of years humans were oppressed - as some of us still are - by the notion that the universe is a marionette whose strings are pulled by a god or gods, unseen and inscrutable." - Carl Sagan
Freedom consonant with responsibility.
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