All fundamental research is reaserch for the sake of knowledge, for the sake of satisfying curiosity. Once it is done, possibly much much much later, somebody

All fundamental research is reaserch for the sake of knowledge, for the sake of satisfying curiosity. Once it is done, possibly much much much later, somebody may stumble upon it and use it in some creative (and unforseen) ways for other research. On the other hand if you give any probability to alien existence, then this is very much practical already in the search for them.