You can only ever research one level of a technology at once, as I understand it. You can, however, have up to twelve different technologies researching at the same time. So instead of just researching that big bad gun you just got, research that big bad gun and perhaps a new level of ship construction, or shields, or sensors, or armor, or another weapon, or whatever.
And you can maximize the use of your research points by de-selecting the "spread points evenly" option, which has a tendancy to waste points on lower-level techs. Then just line up the Queue in the order you want things to be researched, and viola, "perfect" research!
Plus, since you weapon costs so little in comparison to your total research points, you should be able to crank out a bigger, faster, more accurate, harder to hit, tougher ship (Ship Construction, propulsion, sensors, combat support, shields/armor) with which to mount your new gun, and in the same time it would take you to research it all alone.
-Hotfoot
"Plans never survive first contact with the enemy. Make sure that opposite is also true as often as you can."
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