[tiborsaas]

Take particle physics for example, the LHC was incredibly expensive and most people's life won't be better that that we've found the Higgs field. It was also not paid by investors but public money.

There are quite a lot of science that's basic research and it's done for scientific curiosity only with no clear way of translating that to marketable applications.

[whiplash451]

That’s an extreme example. To @jonah’s point, you could also decide to work for (or build) a profitable company that solves the issues he mentioned —- without having to « embed » it into financial gaming.

[imtringued]

Academia is primarily funded by the government through grants.

[ysofunny]

> "most people's life won't be better that that we've found the Higgs field."

on one hand, I feel you should append "...yet" into that thought. just because it hasn't been useful technologically now doesn't mean it never will.

on the other hand, I've seen some physicists doubt that quarks even exist out of a controversy about Feynman's allegedly missing diagrams