Do you know uninteresting but useful scientific discoveries?
I'm having mixed feelings about the starting assumption of the article "That's interesting!" by sociologist Murray S. Davis. The starting assumption is that it is desirable for scientists to produce interesting theories. Is it really?
The article goes on to analyze what makes a proposition interesting and what makes one non-interesting.
Do you have examples that contradict the assumption that interesting is necessarily desirable in science? Can you think of non-interesting scientific propositions that were very useful?
The Big Five model of personality is a lot less popularly known than the Myers-Briggs personality types (probably because it's not fun to talk with your coworkers about who's more neurotic), yet it's more accurate.
Research is done because you are compelled to do so, it chooses you, usually something you never thought you'd be good at or interested in, you just can't stop, for me anyway.
An 'uninteresting' but useful scientific discovery is modern infintesimal calculus https://youtu.be/D8_BBoolMm8
Would evidence about masks wearing be one example?
At the start of the pandemic it felt very surprising to me that we didn’t have a definitive scientific answer to whether we should wear masks or not. You’d think something so basic would be known. I’m not that familiar with the evidence so maybe it did exist but the scientific community was unsure about supply.
Don't know it it fits your question, but I believe Monte Carlo schemes are quite dull at a first glance, but ended up being surprisingly useful.
Like Hubble’s first director’s idea to point the telescope towards empty space for hundreds of hours?
Hand washing comes to mind