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One potential saving grace is in falling costs of tools from technological advancement but science is a very broad subject where material demands vary greatly.

One potential saving grace is in falling costs of tools from technological advancement but science is a very broad subject where material demands vary greatly. Theoretical physics may have minimal material needs. A citizen scientest might be theoretically able to do something with CRISPR to say, modify e-coli to start producing carbon nanotubes or try to evolve plastic eating bacteria. But not making their own Large Hadron Collider. One would need a very complete picture to be able to accurately generalize in such an absurdly broad area.

visarga 5y ago
> Theoretical physics may have minimal material needs. I don't buy that because it's very expensive to experimentally prove the difference between various theories.
- lokimedes 5y ago
  Exactly true. physics is an empirical science. The separation into “theoretical” and “experimental” (and “phenomenological” in-between) is a result of some haywire marketing that somehow has divided the scientific method up into specialized professions. The field of Physics though, is grounded in experimentation and observation. The lack of this grounding is called mathematics, philosophy or in the extreme case: religion. Best regards, A purebred experimentalist from the theoretical institute of physics at Blegdamsvej 17 (Niels Bohr’s Institute).
  - Jensson 5y ago
    > The field of Physics though, is grounded in experimentation and observation. The lack of this grounding is called mathematics Right, and the mathematical field where you use axioms matching physics experiments is called theoretical physics. Currently there is a lot of work to do in that domain, as currently we don't have any theories that matches well with all experimental data we have. We have small scale theories and big scale theories, but there still needs people to work out theories and formulas for combining the two. You might call that mathematics, other calls it theoretical physics, either way they will help further the field of physics and science in general.

visarga 5y ago

> Theoretical physics may have minimal material needs. I don't buy that because it's very expensive to experimentally prove the difference between various theories.

lokimedes 5y ago
Exactly true. physics is an empirical science. The separation into “theoretical” and “experimental” (and “phenomenological” in-between) is a result of some haywire marketing that somehow has divided the scientific method up into specialized professions. The field of Physics though, is grounded in experimentation and observation. The lack of this grounding is called mathematics, philosophy or in the extreme case: religion. Best regards, A purebred experimentalist from the theoretical institute of physics at Blegdamsvej 17 (Niels Bohr’s Institute).
- Jensson 5y ago
  > The field of Physics though, is grounded in experimentation and observation. The lack of this grounding is called mathematics Right, and the mathematical field where you use axioms matching physics experiments is called theoretical physics. Currently there is a lot of work to do in that domain, as currently we don't have any theories that matches well with all experimental data we have. We have small scale theories and big scale theories, but there still needs people to work out theories and formulas for combining the two. You might call that mathematics, other calls it theoretical physics, either way they will help further the field of physics and science in general.