Material science and manufacturing are two that have always seemed interesting to me, particularly monocrystalline stuff like semiconductors, optics, and metallurgy.

Varda uses the low gravity environment of space to create medicines that work better than when they're made on Earth.

Don't think Varda (or anyone else) has ever sold any space produced drug? It's all very much experimental small scale. Realistically, something has to be super potent and super expensive to even consider it (that rules out anything mainstream).

Not that anything is really produced in space either, more like passively transformed into some crystal form from a liquid state or whatever. Environmental assistance more than anything else.

There's a lot of fundamental science to be done in space; some forms of crystal are much easier to grow, chemical reactions and biological interactions etc. etc. For reference, it wasn't long ago NASA was trying to figure out if spiders could form webs in space.

Spoiler alert: they can.

"When gravity is involved, the golden orb spiders will happily build their asymmetrical webs, and sit facing downwards waiting for prey. In space, their webs were more symmetrical, however when there was light, the spiders used it as a reference point and built their webs as if the light was the opposite to 'downwards'."

https://www.sciencealert.com/here-s-what-happens-to-spiders-... (with video)

This is an old idea, dating back to at least the 1940s. Many experiments have already been done in microgravity environments.

In the 1960s, they used sounding rockets to do experiments on how molten metals solidify in microgravity, with manufacturing applications in mind.

More recently, many microgravity experiments have been performed on the International Space Station. Experiments were done on protein crystal growth aboard the ISS in 2000, just a couple of years after it was launched. (I think it took some time to get the experimental facilities up and running.)

Here’s an assortment of links on the subject, starting with a good overview:

https://www.nasa.gov/missions/station/applications-within-re...

https://issnationallab.org/research-and-science/space-resear...

https://www.nasa.gov/missions/station/the-benefits-of-microg...

https://ntrs.nasa.gov/citations/20200001550

https://ntrs.nasa.gov/citations/20150023126

https://asmedigitalcollection.asme.org/manufacturingscience/...

ZBLAN manufacturing

https://www.nasa.gov/missions/station/iss-research/optical-f... https://thedailypost.digital/how-microgravity-made-zblan-cou...

The primary one I've been sold on is types of crystal growth is just better up there. But due to the excess expense, the only thing that fits the bill is experimental edge case pharmaceuticals that have massive price tags that insurance mostly covers.

If the automation improves far beyond what we currently have available, maybe this means microchip manufacturing in the future, but we aren't at all there yet from the fab side of the equation.