I'm not sure about the rest but for question 2:
A theory is an attempt to come up with a big picture of all we know so far. It also drives future research as people do experiments to see if what the theory predicts actually happens. When experiments don’t support the theory, you have to change the theory and try again. That’s how science works. We come up with a “best guess” (theory), and then do research to test it’s accuracy. As we discover contradictions, we adjust the theory to take those into account, and then start testing the validity of the new theory.
