Jigsaw Puzzle

My PhD is all about finding one piece of missing information in crystal engineering. With this little piece of information, hopefully it will help the scientists in future to predict the habit (shape) of the crystal, to understand the dissolution of the material in wider context and to distinguish each facet of a crystal could exhibit very different thermal stability. In my study, most of them are related to pharmaceutical solids. In my thesis, I'm justifying my work is important and will provide different insight to the world of crystal.

I'm almost coming to the end of this entire research. I have to ask myself some questions. Are all these worth doing for 3 years? Will the money invested in my project (say £40k) be better used in the charity? I bet this could help thousands of people in Africa. Will this missing piece of information revolutionise the field of crystal engineering or pharmaceutical? Is this study really helpful when it came to real process?

May someone use this piece of information one day to fit in the jigsaw puzzle.