Then @luminousvisions blew my mind with his response.
"yes, you should dig deeper into this...
maybe next time they come to steemit to fund the research!"

I got dibs on the Gravitation Research Department, which I have named #ascensionteam. But first I am going to build the administrative infrastructure for organising working groups, my so-called 'SteemHordes' project, which is in the pipeline after I get #steemportal up and running :)

I'm excited to see that people are starting to realise that in fact, Steem is a platform for freeform, ad-hoc business development. Making research and publishing under public domain, on the blockchain, is totally something I can see votes flooding in for.