I was researching for the psychological profile of a character. I wanted the character to be real to themselves and real to real life too. Read papers, reports, and more reports. So now the character is real to the story and should be to you. While not a monolith for people of that type the character's actions will be logical and relate-able.
As far as research never stopping you are quite right. I enjoyed a very interesting conversation this week about particle physics. And while the math is beyond me there are some reports that I need to follow on because these reports are proving things that Einstein's Theory of Relativity states are impossible. (Or course the key-word there is theory but it's a good one.) However what we knew then is what we knew then now we're finding out some things that are challenging what we knew then. On top of that its opening some doors for areas of the imagination that were once slammed shut.
Which (having read the Special Theory of Relativity) raises more questions that I'd love to ask. Don't worry I won't be asking those questions here on AW. Why ask when you can research? Or send an email to someone at NASA when all else fails.