how do you get rubies and sapphires? I'd really like to know, thanks, and what does the research do?

You can get rubies and sapphires by buying them from the market or from other people, you can find them in the maps by using a item finder/dowsing machine. I don't know what the research does. I hope this helped.

while using the item finder\dowsing machine if you collect 50 rubies and 50 sapphires you hand them in at the lab and there's a 50% chance you get the item - Leftovers

same with the nuggets collect 10 and there's a 50% chance on getting the item - Black Sludge.

But if it fails you lose them and you have to collect them again.