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I agree, although I think it could be argued that a logical outcome of this fact, is that most (although hopefully not all) of the physicists should go work on

I agree, although I think it could be argued that a logical outcome of this fact, is that most (although hopefully not all) of the physicists should go work on other things, like maybe the physics of planet formation, where we are getting new data all the time. Or maybe in areas outside of physics altogether, like the social sciences, where again we have orders of magnitude more data than we once did. If the low-hanging fruit is all gone, move on. That's hard news if you've sunk two or three decades into becoming an expert in a particular niche.

Sean1708 8y ago
> Or maybe in areas outside of physics altogether This does actually happen already. I'm not sure how widespread it is, but I've noticed it in a couple of Condensed Matter Theory groups. For example Imperial's group[0] do research on Complexity and Networks including the "application of these principles to a variety of stochastic phenomena, ranging from ant colonies to cardiovascular biology, from sandpiles to earthquakes". [0]: https://www.imperial.ac.uk/condensed-matter-theory/research/ https://www.imperial.ac.uk/condensed-matter-theory/research/
kgwgk 8y ago
Physicists: https://www.xkcd.com/793/ https://www.xkcd.com/793/