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New branch of particle physics maybe... Exciting!
https://www.quantamagazine.org/milestone-evidence-for-anyons-a-third-kingdom-of-particles-20200512/
@freemo Slightly related this time: to pass time while the kids are asleep, I often get through my YouTube backlog via TV for me and my dad to watch. One of them was from Fermi Labs discussing bosons and gluons and similar. My dad asked along the lines of “what’s the point of all that? what good does it do any of us to know this?” I could only come up with the likes of “sometimes while researching they think up of what they could do with what they learned, for example nuclear energy”. I bet there are hundreds of philosophical and practical answers to my dad’s inquiry! 
I suppose it depends on what specific discovery we are talking about... Bosons cover a huge range of related discoveries alone
@freemo I wonder if my dad is the kind of person who, for example, would take the discovery of the Higgs Boson and reply “oh, nice. so when you gonna cure cancer?” IE doesn’t see the use in studying various fields unless it would result in a direct benefit. Maybe there are too many dots to connect, if there are any and not exploring the great unknowns and making exciting discoveries because you never know if you stumble across, for example, a means to generate negative gravity and thereby suddenly have the fuel for powering the as-of-now hypothetical Alcubierre drive!
@cowanon If anything i am the polar opposite of your dad. I believe that learning or discovering anything, no matter how useless on the surface makes those who learn it better at **everything**.
Even to the point of absurdity. If I learn about, lets say woman's makeup.. the colors and types of lipstick they have and how to do makeup, for example, I'd be better at advanced stellar astrophysics. Not because one set of knowledge directly applies to the other at all. but simply because learning about new ways to think and analyze will train your brain to be better at everything else.
Learning, studying, and discovery is never a waste no matter the subject. Sometimes learning one thing may be a quicker path to being able to accomplish something specific, sure. So I'm not suggesting you just learn things randomly with no direction... But there is always a benefit to learning.
@freemo >there is always a benefit to learning Just like there is always a benefit to exercise: so many aspects of oneself improves with keeping strong and healthy, not just appearance. Cardio is one of the most effective anti-depressants, for example.
“Brain-weightlifting” could very well be key to understanding that crazy equation: eventually with enough brain-training your mind gets strong enough to “lift” that “heavy” math problem when you couldn’t for so long before.