[jampekka]

There will be no Copernicus if everybody just studies epicycles. E.g. there are massive resources put into the desperate WIMP hunt that could be used for finding new theories.

[Dylan16807]

I don't see how those resources are fungible with each other.

[jampekka]

Research funding is very competitive and scarce.

[Dylan16807]

Building a physics machine, and thinking about how the equations might work, are so very different.

Does the latter even get funding?

[jampekka]

Of course. It's called theoretical physics.