I dislike the fact that “research” has so broad a meaning in English. In particular, journalistic research does not have much in common with scientific research. And this constant push to “do your research” from crackpots and pseudo-skeptics is giving research a bad name (of course, they don’t mean scientific research either). Going down a rabbit hole on Wikipedia watching more or less dubious videos is studying at best, not researching.
Anyway, in this case, “research” is legit, even from a scientific perspective: there is an object, and hypotheses are tested, and observations are made to gain insights on how it works. Perfectly legitimate piece of applied research.
Anyway, in this case, “research” is legit, even from a scientific perspective: there is an object, and hypotheses are tested, and observations are made to gain insights on how it works. Perfectly legitimate piece of applied research.