From clocks to proteins. What is basic research for?

The social and historic impacts of research are difficult to predict, and also very often underestimated. What does the distillation of air have to do with casinos in Las Vegas? Or the invention of the printing press with the development of cell biology? Could the person who invented the quartz watch have predicted that without him I wouldn’t be able to carry out my research into computational biophysics? And in view of all this, how can I explain to you what the subject of my research is actually for?

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