Yes, you can do a lot fo good research here just browsing the forums... joining in on current topics and reviving older threads asking questions or for clarifications.

If you don't see a topic you are interested in... certainly start a new thread.

And though you can accomplish some of this in chat... the conversations are frenetic and tend to wander... so you may want to save chat for when you want to be entertained or want to participate in the entertainment.