This is very timely for me having just watched "Particle Fever" (2013) for the first time last night. I just want to reiterate the answer one of the theoretical

This is very timely for me having just watched "Particle Fever" (2013) for the first time last night. I just want to reiterate the answer one of the theoretical physicists made when asked, what economic benefit the LHC will provide. His answer was "No idea" and then went on to the say that when radio waves were discovered, they weren't called "radio waves" and no one knew if those would be of any benefit either. You do the research to extend your knowledge for that reason alone. In a similar vein I heard an anecdote once, supposedly a toast that used to be made by academics in Oxford or Cambridge. "To pure mathematics and may it never be of any use to anyone". Later it turned out that without Number theory, practical secure communication over the internet would be impossible.