Using advanced technology, the Refinery breaks down plorts and other resources to their molecular level, allowing them to be fabricated into various Slime Science gadgets. Aside from plorts, the bulk of resources you will use in Slime Science will be obtained from resource nodes found in the environment.
Be sure to choose what to deposit into the Refinery wisely: any resources you deposit cannot be removed from the refinery, but instead used only for building gadgets.