Does science work like actual science?

[Waxing_Kibbous]

I'm curious if science data like temperature, gravity, etc. can be used practically- say if I send a temperature and gravity probe to Eve I can look in the tracking station and will now have that data available (more interesting yet it will only be partially accurate until you get 100%). I feel like it must do this somewhere, it makes sense to send a probe first to gather data before kerballed missions.

[Snark]

Not really. Some of the instruments do have a "Toggle Display" option while you're flying the ship, which allows you to see current conditions:

Thermometer: What's the temperature? Not useful for anything other than curiosity, as far as I can tell.

Pressure meter: What's the pressure? Useful for knowing, for example, when your parachutes can deploy.

Gravity detector: What's the local strength of the gravitational field?

Seismic accelerometer: What's the current acceleration of the ship? (either due to engine thrust when in flight, or local gravity if it's sitting on the surface).

...But that's about it, other than getting science points for returning data.

[Wolfox]

I can´t imagine using barometer to open chutes, honestly (especially with chute safety indicator mod, which is quite redundant at this point).

You can read about planet´s gravity in tracking station, so no point of gravioli detector aswell. Only useful thing I occasionally take a look at, is thermometer. Useful for designing of mining crafts, which have to deal with overheating.

[Jovus]

Fortunately, you don't have to write a grant proposal and then successfully publish a paper in a peer-reviewed journal in order to unlock the next node on the tech tree.

[Snark]

I can´t imagine using barometer to open chutes, honestly (especially with chute safety indicator mod, which is quite redundant at this point).

You can read about planet´s gravity in tracking station, so no point of gravioli detector aswell. Only useful thing I occasionally take a look at, is thermometer. Useful for designing of mining crafts, which have to deal with overheating.

Well, none of them are what I'd call super useful, but they are at least somewhat relevant. For example, if you're flight testing a plane on Kerbin, you can see how it flies at different pressure levels, which might help in calibrating for other planets. The gravioli detector tells you the strength of the gravitational field where you are, whereas the tracking station will only tell you the gravity at "sea level".

Not super practical; in practice, I never use them. But they can be interesting to play with.

[technion]

Fortunately, you don't have to write a grant proposal and then successfully publish a paper in a peer-reviewed journal in order to unlock the next node on the tech tree.

Sounds like the perfect mod!