This is a good contender for the next Ig Noble prize. My knee reaction with such articles is "I am glad that the guy is not payed with my taxes" but then I won

This is a good contender for the next Ig Noble prize. My knee reaction with such articles is "I am glad that the guy is not payed with my taxes" but then I wonder how many of such useless papers where actually trampolines for useful ones (by bootstrapping ideas, suggesting "some uses of vibranium which, in that specific case could be replaced with titanium", etc.). This extends to topics like astrophysics of galaxies far away (which we will not reach within 7000 years), particle physics (which work at energies which cannot be replicated outside of the lab), ... I am well aware that things which happen around these topics (say, the need to better understand magnetism in accelerators which can lead to better tomography or something) but are these money pits really needed as catalyzers?