There Are Plenty of 'Big Ideas' Out There
The New York Times says there are no "big ideas" these days. This is a bit esoteric, but I agree 100% with the author:
I never like to talk about "the good old days" but in the 1960's and '70's, science was "cool." To cite one example, the late astronomer Carl Sagan was invited on talk shows and had great gigs on PBS.
Today, we hear about Lady Gaga. About the only 'science' covered with any consistency is 'global warming' and much of what the popular press writes about climate science is of dubious quality.
Don't despair. There are plenty of excellent scientists going great and exciting work.
UPDATE: One reader comments via email, that it wasn't all that "cool" for Dr. Sagan to be on PBS. I should have mentioned that he was a frequent guest on the Tonight Show with Johnny Carson.
And we modern physicists are more ambitious that Einstein. We put forward Theories of EVERYTHING, theories that explain ALL forces and particles. Einstein was trying merely to unify gravity with electromagnetism.
And our reality is infinitely bigger than Einstein’s. We modern quantum physicists claim that reality is not a mere universe, but an uncountable infinity of universes just like our own. Don’t tell me that this is not BIG idea!
I never like to talk about "the good old days" but in the 1960's and '70's, science was "cool." To cite one example, the late astronomer Carl Sagan was invited on talk shows and had great gigs on PBS.
Today, we hear about Lady Gaga. About the only 'science' covered with any consistency is 'global warming' and much of what the popular press writes about climate science is of dubious quality.
Don't despair. There are plenty of excellent scientists going great and exciting work.
UPDATE: One reader comments via email, that it wasn't all that "cool" for Dr. Sagan to be on PBS. I should have mentioned that he was a frequent guest on the Tonight Show with Johnny Carson.
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