I hate, hate, hate when a reporter interviews a scientist about something, and the interview is going fine, then the reporter inevitably asks, "How could this be used?" And suddenly, the scientist has to start bullshitting. You get to hear a completely respectable scientist start making all sorts of dubious claims, because they aren't allowed to tell the truth, that its use is up to the future. There have been uncountable experimental results that didn't seem to have a use at the time, only to be regarded as essential in the future.

If they were trying to invent some product, they'd be called an engineer instead of a scientist.

But in this case, the scientist wouldn't even have to bullshit. "We've already learned a lot about aerodynamics by looking at other animals in wind tunnels. There's no reason to think we might not learn anything useful here about aerodynamic shapes."

In my book, that makes this guy who said "absolutely no one" in the meme an anti-intellectual.