[javajosh]

This is very frustrating for those of us that see the rather large problem in front of us - our apparent total inability to move around the stars, and only feeble ability to move around our solar system. This caps the lifespan of humanity (and most of the life we know) at about 500k years at best. So, even if we succeed wildly at our environmental and social problems, we'll end up with a single beautiful world getting smashed to bits by a meteor, gamma burst, or other uncontrollable, unavoidable cosmic event.

Physicists need to get their heads out of their political/philosophical asses and start earning their bread - which is nothing less than to justify our technological existence by discovering the knowledge that will help our species live longer. If not for this, I think we'd all be better off living on a planet of 200M people living in rural villages, leading simple lives that are as happy and fair and erudite as fate and culture allows.

[drjesusphd]

Plenty of us are working on nuclear fusion, but funding keeps getting cut year after year. It's simply not as sexy and doesn't get as much attention as the cosmological kinds of questions.