May 2nd, 2008

"A few years ago, while reading stories about superstrings vibrating in 10 dimensions or quantum computers solving problems in parallel universes, I began to feel nostalgic. Issac Newton Isaac Newton in a pensive pose I love these grand speculative theories and admire their creators, but sometimes the layers of abstraction are piled so high that they induce vertigo. I felt a need to get back to the ground. I also found myself lamenting how much of science has become a team sport. The experiments so often celebrated in the newspapers - sequencing the genome, proving the existence of the top quark, discovering a new planet by analysing the wobble of a distant star - cost millions of pounds and are carried out by crews that have grown to the size of small corporations."
Top ten greatest experiments - Telegraph
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