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I'm afraid we are not going to be nearly as commercial as some other science forums as we will, perhaps, duck, the political and theological fallout.

So to kick things off I thought I'd post the following link to Trent University and lets see what happens.

http://www.trentu.ca/academic/physics/history_895.html

The item is a bit long, a bit academic, but ends with the following I'll use as a teaser:

"Much effort has also gone into trying to unify electromagnetism and gravitation. In fact, Einstein spent most of the latter part of his life trying to create a quantum form of the general theory of relativity. As can be seen from these few examples, the nineteenth-century belief that the main theoretical work of physicists was over could not have been further from the truth! "

Science as recited today is a big baby almost enough to make mother nature more obscure than ever. When one field of endeavor tends to contradict another, and when that conflict is compounded by apparently separate fields we know that the participants will be searching for a long time to come. There should be plenty of room for new ideas and new well founded approaches. A nice read.

I've no doubt that in a hundred or so years there will be people quaintly looking back at relativity and quantum mechanics the way we look back at Newtonian mechanics.

Hi All,

This is an interesting read. All the great scientists over the centuries have encouraged their students to become literate in the history and philosophy of their subject. This has been especially true since the beginning of the 20th century with the advent of Quantum Theory and Relativity Theory. The unification of these two great theories has proven to be quite difficult and progress has been unsatifactory. It is not just a matter of technicalities and mathematical refinement. The conceptual framework needs to be reconsidered and thought about very carefully. At the same time, scientific methods and purpose also need to be brought to light.

It is sad that many professors show disdain and contempt for these things. They communicate this attitude to their students and, I feel, do them a great diservice. It is as though they wish to drive a wedge between Science and other human endevours. This kind of separation is imaginary. Science is a completely human thing.

Dr. R.

The one thing that sets physics and physicists apart from those in all other sciences is that they must answer the ultimate questions such as "what is reality", "how did it all start", "how will it all end". Even "what is the meaning of life."

About the only theological question not impacted is the defining of what is life and what is death.

One can not consider something as elementary as the big bang or the interior of a black hole without confronting questions of what is real.

It could be that even things as fundamental as the law of entropy will come into question.

I expect they will and think they should.

Nothing is beyond question.