But Nobel prize winner and Columbia University chemistry professor Martin Chalfie will show how it can be used to make significant discoveries, as part of the University of Otago’s annual Eccles Lecture.
The term "useless information" was first used ironically to refer to basic research by Abraham Flexner in 1939.
Following in Flexner’s footsteps, Prof Chalfie will argue that real discoveries are made when scientists are allowed to explore the world without recourse to "usefulness".
"Several Nobel prizes have been given for discoveries tangential to what was initially studied, and so my lecture will highlight how ‘useless information’ is needed as much today as it has been in the past for the advancement of industry and medicine."
Prof Chalfie said present medical and technological problems could only be addressed "somewhat" with existing information.
New knowledge, which comes from basic research, was needed for future advancements.
"So people who do basic research need our support and, those who do applied research, need to be in contact with people doing basic research.
He said his lecture would also present ways that people could work to find the unexpected and "enable future revolutions".
Professor Chalfie’s Nobel Prize-winning work on jellyfish Green Fluorescent Protein (GFP) paved the way for the use of it and related fluorescent proteins as cellular and molecular markers in biological sciences, providing a dynamic way of watching biological processes happen.
Prof Chalfie’s public lecture will be at the Barnett lecture hall, inside Dunedin Hospital, at 4pm tomorrow.
