And the winner of the Most Obscure Academic Search-Engine of 2009 Award goes to the… Academic search engine about the Sun Mushroom. Don’t chuckle too much, though. Out of seemingly obscure research can come wonders. As Roger Scruton said in England (2000)…

“Those who make discoveries frequently have no use for them. But almost invariably a use is found, and that which was most useless, and perhaps even valued for its pristine futility, like the theory of the transfinite cardinals, is suddenly revealed to be an indispensable asset of mankind. Who would have supposed that Boole’s algebra and Frere and Russell’s logic would lead to anything more than the rarefied speculations of philosophy? In fact they led in time to the computer revolution.”