All research techs should show _exactly_ what they provide in the details pane, with mouseovers for more info.

Right now, a lot (some? all? I don't know!) of techs provide passive and important bonuses, but you have to read through the flavor text box and deduce what those bonuses are. I didn't even realize you could get more mana from shards until I saw an AI player extracting 4 mana a turn and I went hunting in the magic tree for the likely suspect (Arcane Mastery for the record - which only shows the Temple you can build in your cities, not that it boosts shard income, which is in the fluff text box)