[Spiffu]

The further advance of knowledge of the human race? Sorry that sounds so trite. If humans didn't have intellectual curiosity we would be no where near where we are today as a society. The unknown is always what we go after.

Sorry, it's not going to feed the poor or build dams. Go join up with Sally Struthers if you want a bigger soap box for those kind of issues.

The fact of the matter is countries and even individuals (Bill Gates) donating much much larger sums to third world countries and it still hasn't made much of a difference.

By the way the processor you're using to your words is most likely using quantum tunneling in it's cpu architecture. An observation of electrons in quantum mechanics at Fermilabs atom smasher.

So yes, practical means have come from these experiments.