"A beautiful saying...that involves grandfathers and eggs"

I am puzzled by this. Are you perhaps referring to the saying "teaching your grandmother to suck eggs?"

We don't, as far as I know, have any sayings in English about grandfathers and eggs.

If you mean that I'm trying to teach my grandmother to suck eggs, then I am at a loss as to see why you are using that saying in this particular context. I was merely trying to help by stepping in and answering your question (you had lamented the lack of replies) so I am a bit puzzled by your cryptic references to grandfathers and eggs (and also the reference to humour. I can't see anything in your original question to indicate that your question was a joke, and was not to be taken seriously).

"i obviously did not mean that every time you perform research you have to write a report"

It wasn't obvious to the reader at all. Not in the least. Quite the contrary.

What you wrote was: "When I first learned English, research was part of the process of scientific enquiry and would usually involve at least a three months' project, at the end of which there'd be some data and hopefully some conclusions." 

Based on what you wrote, it seemed like you thought that research meant something that was only done in an academic environment. I was only trying to help you out by explaining that in colloquial English, we use the word in a more general sense nowadays. I hope you understand my explanation.

You are ranting about one particular word in one particular language.

However, in all languages (not just English) many, many words (verbs, adjectives, nouns, whatever) are used by native speakers in a way that may differ from how non-native speakers have been taught those words in a classroom.

In colloquial English, we often say "do your research".

This expression doesn't mean "please go away and conduct several months of scholarly investigation."

Rather, it means "I advise you to go and find out some information about the topic you are talking to me about."

In addition, I have to correct you on your (mis)understanding of these two verbs. "To look up" and "to research" do not mean the same thing. 

"To look up" is a very quick process. It refers to searching for one word or expression only. Once you have found that particular thing, the process of looking it up is finished. Therefore, looking something up on the Internet takes mere seconds (just like looking up a word in the dictionary only takes seconds).

In contrast, researching something on the Internet means reading many articles about it. Researching something online could take hours, days, or weeks. I often spend time researching things online and it takes me a long time. Research involves a lot of reading.

By the way, "copying the relevant sections off the Wikipedia page" wouldn't be research. That would be plagiarism. 

I'm sorry, but the word "research" simply has two different meanings. They are both legitimate.

It can mean fresh scientific investigation; experiments, new discoveries, laboratories.

It can also mean the scholarly review, analysis, and synthesis of already published work.

Check a dictionary.

Oxford Dictionaries offers:

"The systematic investigation into and study of materials and sources in order to establish facts and reach new conclusions," as in scientific research;

"Discover or verify information for use in (a book, programme, etc.)."

Both uses are valid. 

We can say that a non-fiction book is "well-researched" if it has a thick section of references in which the author shows all of his sources of information, even if it does not present a single new fact or discovery.

Aurelio, we are not talking about the same thing.

I was trying to explain that it is possible to both "look something up" on the Internet (which would take a few seconds) and also to "research" something on the Internet (which might take hours, days, or weeks) without either of those two things having to involve any written project at the end of the process.

You seemed to be implying that you thought that the term "research" could only be used in an academic environment to describe what people do at universities, or for homework given to them by teachers. While it is true that research would be the correct word to describe what academic researchers do, nowadays we also use the word "research" to mean investigation done by anybody, and for any purpose.

It is perfectly possible for me to do my own private research on the Internet (or in a library) simply because I want to.

I don't have to be a student or a researcher to do "research", and I don't have to submit any written report or project to anyone.

We can use the word in a context in which private individuals simply want to learn about something, so they investigate it and learn more about it, simply because they want to.

That may not be the dictionary definition, and you may not like the word being used in that context, but people won't stop using it that way because of your one-man protest. Language is evolving all the time and in this Internet age, all of us use the Internet to "research" things.

I am sure you can think of lots of words in German that are used by native speakers in a different way to their dictionary definition, in such a manner that may likewise confuse or annoy non-native speakers of German.

@Anne: you captured the nature of my complaint perfectly :-). They don't mean the same. Etymologically speaking, research is an intensive form of "search" which should take hours - which is precisely why I object to conflating it with "look up"  ;-).

As for Wikipedia - yeah, I noticed that this would be misunderstood, so I edited it back out (although not fast enough for you :-) ). I am actually a big fan of Wikipedia and an occasional editor. But reading an article in there (or the Encyclopedia Britannica if you insist) does not constitute research yet - you have to add your own intellectual contribution to it, so to speak, and I think we are devaluing the word - and while we are at it devaluing the process of intellectual creation.

That's what my "rant" is about ;-).