Oh right, I forgot about the 6 figure salary doctoral students get. How do you know that these salaries aren't funded by the school? In fact, it looks like much of this research was.
Science isn't about efficiency - it can't be. Think of it as a game of football. You can't script every play you're going to run a day before the game and expect to win. Research is the same way; not everything is going to fit your hypothesis. What if this research showed that no microbes were transferred by the glass? And then they came up with a antiviral drug which is made of fine glass particles? It'd be worth while then.
Does it sound ridiculous? A little... but remember; penicillin was discovered because someone screwed up.
Antron007:
Using anecdotal evidence to imply that doctors and medicine is useless is sort of a step backwards. We see clear epidemiological evidence that countries with lower standards of health have much severe problems. For example, Tuberculosis kills 33% of those who died of infectious diseases. I think <30 people last year had TB in the United States, and most of those were foreign-born cases. In reality, you're leaching off of those who do all those things to keep healthy.