Well, it's searching for the unknown and competitively FOMO -- fear of missing out. Searching for the unknown has worked great in the past. The physicists are

Well, it's searching for the unknown and competitively FOMO -- fear of missing out. Searching for the unknown has worked great in the past. The physicists are under enormous pressure to publish good papers, and to this end they will push hard against the unknown, by whatever cleverness, directions, ideas, means, techniques, etc. they have. They may move to applied physics, research in engineering, etc.