4 ms·
Genuine question here, when was the last time a total outsider made a significant contribution to physics?
by outlace 3y ago
Genuine question here, when was the last time a total outsider made a significant contribution to physics?
- tonycoco 3y agoWhen was the last time an insider made one?
- sandworm101 3y agohttps://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/STEVE https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/STEVE https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Subauroral_ion_drift https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Subauroral_ion_drift Not exactly the discovery of a new quark, but it triggered realworld research into the cause of the phenomena. That qualifies as contribution imho.
- FollowingTheDao 3y agoAsk yourself; why are they outsiders in the first place? It's like asking why hasn't anyone who is not a player in major league baseball ever won a world series?
- outlace 3y agoThose are disanalogous in the case of theoretical physics where you don’t need access to any expensive equipment. There’s nothing in principle preventing someone from learning math and physics on their own or from a traditional university and then coming up with new theories alone. And in fact this happens all the time and most of those people get called crackpots.
- 1270018080 3y agoA better analogy is asking why someone who is bad at baseball isn't on an MLB team