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As a general rule, if you are hearing about some scientific endeavor in the popular press, it is because that science isn't very important, and they need publicity to get funding. What a lot of people don't understand is that there is actually a lot of real science going on in physics. There are two branches of physics, what you call condensed matter / atom optics. And then there is Cosmology / High energy physics. condensed matter / atom optics is where the real science is happening, and those who work in those areas consider the second group to be an absolute joke. The thing is, there is also a feeling of everyone working together to try to get as much money from the government as possible, which is why no one blows the whistle on what a complete scam cosmology and the like is. It is understood at a subconscious level that everyone could be hurt if academics start in fighting, and people would be ostracized for doing it. Also, there are a lot of bad scientists / zealots in condensed matter/ atom optics just as there is in cosmology, and they would try to ruin anyone who said a bad word about the church of academia. Anyway, as far as real physics goes, there was great article on here a while back about how we finally got to look at the atomic structure of glass, and how we can finally try to work out how it is put together. No one knows how glass is put together, there are a number of different theories, and none of them agree. That is the absolute peek of human achievement in science right now, trying to understand how things like glass are put together. So if someone tries to tell you they know how the universe was formed and all of creation came about, but they can't explain to you how that window next to them works, then they are clearly a crackpot, not a scientist. The most hilarious part is that if you pull them up on it they will say "Oh well you see the whole creation of the universe and everything in it is actually much less complicated than glass, so that is why we can get results in this area easier". |