Can someone explain research to me?

Actually, there's a lot of info in the game's video tutorials. It's easy to forget about those so if you are confused about something, check there first. Otherwise, yes, there is little detail on some of the finer game points, but you can always ask here. People seem more than willing to throw info your way if you ask for it.

As far as the "flasks" go, I don't pay any attention to that. I just look on the research screen and go by how many weeks (turns) it says it takes to research a tech. When viewing the full detail, the box on the top right says what you get when a tech is selected. The stuff varies from things you can put on ships, things you can put on planets, things you can put on starbases, to additional bonuses. Where you put your research effort and when you do it is an important strategy in the game. Understanding what exactly everything does is part of learning the game and a sort of trial and error process. It doesn't take long to get a hold of it and it won't be an issue after you've played a few games. I do understand though. With so many techs, it can be a bit intimidating at first.

Can someone explain research to me?

Usually beings in white lab coats (for some reason this applies to all races even the Yor), tend to be geeky looking, no girlfriend (or fellow tin can in the case of the Yor) and talk in meaningless riddles(even with universal translater), but understandable by anyone else wearing a white lab coat. They move alot of beakers about (filling them up as they go) and just when your thinking about how useless they r, contemplating throwing them out of the airlock, they hand u a doom ray...

Usualy the techs are kinda self-explanitory, and if you learn the color-codes you can figure out an application[i.e: Yellow is makey-nice with the ugly aliens, Red is firing or exploding something to explode something else.]

And as CraigHB said, I just pay attention to the ETC in weeks, as that's all that's really important.

For example - Basic Logistics shows a point total of 150... I had my research at 21 (showed in some graph chart under "misc"), but it was only taking 4 weeks to research.

The points shown in the tech file refers to the basic cost. This is further modified by several factors, such as the game session's tech research speed setting, and also your researching bonus (reduces the cost).

The flasks that you see on each planet screen represents the Research Points (RP) that that planet is producing. Big flasks represents 5 or 10 pts i think, and small ones 1 pt, kinda like Roman Numerals. It's easier though to just look at the number on top of the flasks display to know how many RPs you are getting there.

RPs from all planets under your control are pooled together to work on your current research project (You can see this total at the civ economy screen, F4). e.g. you are researching Basic Logistics, after the cost is modified by all factors, we get final cost as 100 pts. Your total RP output is, lets say, 20 pts. so it shall take you 100/20=5 weeks to get that tech, if you maintain that production rate at that figure of 20 RPs per week.

More info abt research can be found in the wiki site.

To know abt specific techs and ship components, you can check that wiki again, or download Galactopedia, a 3rd party program that compiles info from the game files regarding techs, planetary buildings, and ship components. Search the forum for it to find the download link.

That's wicked help - thanks a ton. Exactly what I was hoping for!

That one program is also awesome! I was thinking of just working on one just like that myself, but I was hoping there already was something! Thanks a ton!

I just like to know what things cost, and what I'm actually getting for researching it. The game details just aren't enough (like - a better research facility... I like to know just how much better).

Most of reply 4 is correct but the economy screen does not show your total RPs but rather the costs for producing the RPs. The actual RPs produced are shown in each colony scrren and you can view all of them together on the colony management screen -- unfortunately they do not total em up for you.

The Galactopedia is great but be aware those are "Base" costs -- RP costs go up as you get more techs : specifically I believe researching a second line of weapon will raise the research costs around 20% for those techs and doing the 3rd line of weapon about 33%.

I had the same problem getting basic info on the game mechanics and items. I would like to have a detailed in depth and indexed explanation of the game on the website.
The Galactopedia is a big help but there is a lot more that could do with having explanations ( tax formulas, population growth formulas, morale formulas,how minituarization works, etc ... ).