Plus buying the Science Tech will increase the number of tech points earned per research.

I have found that having too many researchers at the table mean that some go off and do other jobs (like laundary) so it is usually a good idea to spread the workers around a bit.

Sometimes when a scienctist gets injured I'll switch him/her with a farmer to "heal" a bit. There may be less tech points for a while, but the injured scientist is less likely to wander off someplace.