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Is the Era of Groundbreaking Science Over?
An anonymous reader writes "In decades and centuries past, scientific genius was easy to quantify. Those scientists who were able to throw off the yoke of established knowledge and break new ground on their own are revered and respected. But as humanity, as a species, has gotten better at science, and the basics of most fields have been refined over and over, it's become much harder for any one scientist to make a mark on the field. There's still plenty we don't know, but so much of it is highly specialized that many breakthroughs are understood by only a handful. Even now, the latest generation is more likely to be familiar with the great popularizers of science, like Neil deGrasse Tyson, Bill Nye, and Carl Sagan, than of the researchers at the forefront of any particular field. "...most scientific fields aren't in the type of crisis that would enable paradigm shifts, according to Thomas Kuhn's classic view of scientific revolutions. Simonton argues that instead of finding big new ideas, scientists currently work on the details in increasingly specialized and precise ways." Will we ever again see a scientist get recognition like Einstein did?"
Is groundbreaking science over? No, not remotely. Is the era where groundbreaking science is publicized and sort of vaguely understood by a lot of non-scientists over? Probably not, but that's at least closer to the truth.
"I zero-index my hamsters" - Willtor (147206)
we will have a coherent explanation for all observable physical phenomena
Contrary to popular belief we have no explaination for gravity, spacetime, or the other fundamental forces (eg: try and define "time" without the definition becoming circular). What we have are models that predict how these "miracles" behave and interact in most situations.
And did you exchange a walk on part in the war for a lead role in a cage? - Pink Floyd.
It always amuses me that Mendel's pea plant experiments would not get past peer review these days.
And did you exchange a walk on part in the war for a lead role in a cage? - Pink Floyd.
Contrary to popular belief we have no explaination for gravity, spacetime, or the other fundamental forces
False. We have no falsifiable, measurable, or experimentally verifiable explanation for gravity, spacetime, or other fundamental forces.
Explanations abound, but there is almost inherently no way that science can test any coherent explanation that came up.
As far as good scientists are concerned... if you can't measure something, and you can't test it -- then it is irrelevent.
It may be true or false -- you don't know -- it falls into the realm of 'belief' or 'religion' instead of science, if it is not testable.