# For the love of frontier research, or why Elon’s rockets keep blowing up

**Authors:** Nektarios Tavernarakis

PMC · DOI: 10.1038/s44319-025-00587-2 · EMBO Reports · 2025-09-29

## TL;DR

The paper argues that an overemphasis on practical research could harm foundational scientific discoveries.

## Contribution

It highlights the importance of basic research in driving future technological innovation.

## Key findings

- Utilitarian research trends may neglect fundamental scientific inquiry.
- Basic research is crucial for unexpected future advancements.

## Abstract

The current Zeitgeist favouring utilitarian research risks undermining basic research—the very foundation on which innovative technological advances depend.

## Full-text entities

- **Diseases:** delusion (MESH:D063726), myopia (MESH:D009216), COVID-19 (MESH:D000086382), amnesia (MESH:D000647), inflammatory (MESH:D007249), dystopia (MESH:D014849)
- **Chemicals:** lipid (MESH:D008055)
- **Species:** Caenorhabditis elegans (species) [taxon 6239], Homo sapiens (human, species) [taxon 9606]

## Full text

_Full body text omitted from this summary view._ Fetch the complete paper as Markdown: https://tomesphere.com/paper/PMC12549840/full.md

## Figures

2 figures with captions in the complete paper: https://tomesphere.com/paper/PMC12549840/full.md

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Source: https://tomesphere.com/paper/PMC12549840