It is the decade of discoveries.

With more powerful and accurate instruments we are finding the answers to life, the universe and everything (so far not 42) First we found the Higg's boson (filling a gap in the predictions of the standard model) in the Large Hadron collider which accelerates protons close to the speed of light, and now we have detected gravity waves from two black holes colliding that distorted space time by about 1000th of the width of a proton over several thousand kilometres.

For nerds like myself this is better than my footy team winning the final, but I guess for everyone else I am interested in what you think.

Dear Shadow Minister,

Instruments can only tell about the structure of the physical universe.
They give no clue as to who you are, what you are, what life is, what others are and what this universe is all about.

No objective means can answer any of the questions that really matter - only you can find the answers within.

Dear Shadow Minister,

What's this 'we'? I'm assuming that in saying this you are indicating that you are a member of the scientific community. Is that correct?

Dear Yuyutsu,

You should spend your time reading about the stars instead of trying to read the stars. There's not much future in being an astrologist any more.

Y,

I know who I am, what I do and why. I also have a fair idea of what people want and why they do what they do. Much of this knowledge is based on science. However, this topic is not about self discovery, and I would prefer not to divert the thread into trivia.

The recent breakthroughs have confirmed that Einstein's general theory of relativity accurately predicts space time on a large scale within limits, and quantum theory does a fantastic job on the small scale.

However, as neither theories predictions cover the other, neither theory is complete. What the world has been looking for for decades is the unified field theory or quantum gravity.

What these discoveries do is clearly show that the equations at the core of relativity and quantum mechanics must be able to be derived from the new theory just as Newtonian physics is a limited subset of relativity.

While this may not affect anyone for decades or centuries, it is possible that gravity based radios and quantum computers will change our lives even more than basic computers have so far.

Mr O,

I am an electrical engineer which is the closest I can get to applied physics and still earn a decent salary.

Yuyutsu>> No objective means can answer any of the questions that really matter - only you can find the answers within.<<

A bit away from the thread Yuyutsu, but my “biggie” has always been why we have a consciousness that had not been imparted to the other creatures of this earth that we share most of our DNA with. From our earliest years we wake every day knowing that we are mortal, an attribute not given to fish, fowl, or beast.

Albert Einstein proposed a static universe until Vesto Slipher’s observations put that to bed.

Even though we have detected gravity waves from two black holes colliding it does not progress our understanding one iota

Einstein’s TOR and the prediction of the ripples in the fabric of space-time had been equated but not proof sanctioned for decades. We really have progressed no further than before this qualification from the colliding black holes.

I am pleased that you see a leap forward in this discovery, but when we discuss the fabric of the universe, it is understanding “dark matter” that will progress us in a single bound. Dark matter is what it is all about and we know it is there because the maths only works with the inclusion of its gravity.