Every physics department in the world gets a constant stream of letters and emails from people claiming important theories which should be researched. How do you propose picking which ones to spend money on?
Of course, most apparently whackadoodle ideas really are whackadoodle ideas, but occasionally you get one that isn't, and when that happens, it's usually big. Perhaps a (small) budget randomly assigned to whackadoodle ideas might be a good thing. Like venture capital for science -- most of the theories are going to crater, but once in a while you might get a unicorn.
I take it you've never had the pleasure of grading lab reports for the simplest experiments by undergrads?
(The little wet-behind-the ears dears manage to write up six kinds of impossible things just to look at the arithmetic, never mind actual reality. Without batting an eyelid.)
It could be a group project. Making sense of a crackpot theory, finding out if there's something testable in it, possibly testing it, and writing it all up. I'm only half-kidding. It would be more interesting and perhaps more socially valuable than repeating the same experiments in physics lab that the last 50 semesters did.
