A publication popularise the research findings of a researcher. It gives the researcher credit and recognition in the scientific world. It paves path for further advanced researches also.
In life science, you want to become an established professor, you need papers. If you need papers, you need to have funds to hire people, and to keep your lab working. If you need founds, you need to apply for it. If you apply for founds, you need to have preliminary data or AGAIN papers to support your grant proposals. So, this is kind like a circle, and 'publishing papers' is one of the most important links. They say: PUBLISH OR PERISH. Well, enough said, let's go back to work and publish some more papers......
Without publishing your research work and results into scientific papers, no new inventions and development would take place. Even renowned scientists like Edition, Einstein, Tesla put up their findings in well known journals which have been used by succeeded scientists to improve upon their inventions. Without publications no novel medicines would have been discovered. So research work in the form of publication is a guide for future research.