: Vital component of weapon and research subjects is not a conflict as long as
: you have enough subjects.

: Which poses the question: why didn't they run out of Flood after so many
: years? Did they have a way of making new Flood biomass? Was it an ethical
: way?

: And on the theme of Sparky and his research... in the original game you would
: form the opinion that Sparky was, at heart, a scientist. But it turns out
: he was not originally from a scientific society.

: Still, I suppose he could be self trained or developed an interest some time
: later - perhaps to stave off boredom or perhaps he was given a geas.

The CEA terminals have 343GS run a bunch of tests to stave off boredom. It doesn't look like he was experimenting with the Flood themselves, though, beyond perhaps simulations—seems like it's above his pay grade.

The Flood biomass doesn't seem to be a problem. Give them some farm animals and they'll happily grow.

I dunno, I think experimenting with the Flood on the very structures that you can basically nuke everything if something goes wrong seems prudent.