Has physics stagnated?

Now let me tell you about the stagnation of physics. I'm glad I can help you. Let's explain it now. Has physics reached a bottleneck, and why is there so little good news? It is not a bottleneck of development. Physicists are studying secretly, and the general research will go through strict review and screening before the news can be made public. Is it because of Einstein's theory of relativity that physics is stagnant now? Now physics is stagnant, not because of Einstein's theory of relativity, but mainly because Planck's theory of quantum physics has led to the metaphysics of modern physics. Has modern physics reached a bottleneck? What other breakthroughs will there be? Looking back, at the beginning of the 20th century, the emergence of quantum mechanics and the theory of relativity refreshed people's world outlook, made human beings have a new understanding of the relationship between time, space and matter, and led to the rapid development of human science and technology. At the beginning of the 21st century, there are no explosive discoveries in physics. To be exact, there is no major discovery in the basic field. Is there a bottleneck in the development of physics? Is it true that, as described in the science fiction "three bodies", the scientific development of mankind has been locked up by a high-level civilization. In fact, physics has not only not stopped moving forward in the last 100 years, but also developed much faster than other periods in history. At the beginning of the 20th century, it was an era of large numbers of talents, and many important discoveries in modern physics were born in that period. Since the 20th century, human civilization has entered a period of rapid development. The picture below is a group photo of scientists attending the Fifth Solvay Conference in 1927, when almost all the world's most outstanding physicists appeared in this photo. How important is physics? Physics is a science that studies the most general laws of matter and its movement and changes, and it is the most basic discipline in natural science. The progress of physics can promote the development of other natural sciences. The progress of human scientific and technological civilization is largely due to the progress of physics, for example, the study of electromagnetism and thermodynamics has brought mankind into the electrical age, while the semiconductor technology and laser technology promoted by quantum mechanics have brought mankind into the information age. A brief history of the development of physics the development of physics is basically in step with the development of natural science. Natural science originated in ancient Greece more than 2600 years ago, and Aristotle was the representative of that era. In China, ancient science represented by Mohist school also appeared in the Spring and Autumn and warring States period more than 2000 years ago, but it was submerged in the historical trend. The discipline of physics did not appear in ancient Greece and belonged to the budding period of natural science, which lasted for about 700 years. At that time, scientists summed up the rules mainly on the basis of observation and experience. The picture above shows the statue of Aristotle. In the Middle Ages, science stagnated for about 1400 years. After the long and dark Middle Ages, in the 16th century, the Renaissance laid the foundation for the germination of modern science, first Copernicus put forward the heliocentric theory, then Galileo opened the precedent of physical experiments, physics and modern science were formally established. Some people say that modern science has come to a standstill. Why? The development of physics has been going on for thousands of years. Galileo's experiment has opened a new beginning of physics. Newton's classical physics has brought us into the world of physics, and now in the field of quantum mechanics, isn't physics constantly improving? It is often said on the Internet that physics has been at a standstill since the birth of the theory of relativity and quantum mechanics, and until now it is still unable to break through the new field of physics. After a hundred years, we are still groping in the theory put forward by physicists in the last century. It can be said that human beings have not broken through a new field in a hundred years and have been wandering. Is this really the case? If we were to find a singularity for modern science, many people would choose Copernicus, while others would choose Galileo. But I believe that more people will choose Newton because Newtonian mechanics and his "mathematical principles of natural philosophy" can be said to be the prelude to modern science. 1666 is considered to be Newton's miracle year. During this year, he went to the countryside to avoid the plague, and during this time, he independently invented calculus, worked out the experimental analysis of light decomposition, and began to think about the law of gravitation. In other words, in this year, he laid an important foundation for the future development of mathematics, mechanics and optics. To tell you the truth, anyone who accomplishes one of these items in his or her life will be immortalized. Therefore, Newton's miracle year is simply quite amazing. He also formally put forward the law of gravitation in the Mathematical principles of Natural philosophy published in 1687, but he made this achievement a long time ago, just hiding it all the time. Therefore, the first peak of scientific development actually occurred between 1666 and 1687. Maxwell. After Newton, the scientist who could compete with Newton was Maxwell. If Newton unified the physics of heaven and earth, Maxwell unified electricity and magnetism, and predicted the existence of electromagnetic waves. In 1873, Maxwell published on electricity and magnetism and put forward the Maxwell equation. In the history of science, on electricity and magnetism is a classic of physics that can compete with the mathematical principles of natural philosophy, which is also the second peak in the history of science. And if we calculate the time between Newton and Maxwell, we will find that there is a 200-year difference in the activity of the two people in the scientific community. So quantum mechanics is less than 80 years away, which is really nothing compared to the time between Newtonian mechanics and Maxwell theory. Relativity and quantum mechanics have cast a shadow over the scientific community since Maxwell's theory was published, because there is a contradiction between Maxwell's theory and Newtonian mechanics, which appears in the speed of light. In addition, on engineering problems, the famous "blackbody radiation" problem has always puzzled scientists. Therefore, these two problems are regarded as two dark clouds on the physics building. And these two dark clouds, one triggered Einstein's theory of relativity, and the other triggered quantum mechanics. The theory of relativity was almost completed by Einstein alone, between 1900 and 1920. Quantum mechanics, on the other hand, is the result of the joint efforts of a group of scientists, and it lasted a long time, about from 1900 to 1930, when the foundation was basically laid. It was about 50 years before the completion of quantum mechanics before Maxwell published on electricity and magnetism. What we know here, however, is that the development of quantum mechanics and the theory of relativity depends very much on the development of observation technology. during this period, a group of physicists, led by Thomson and Rutherford, first developed experimental equipment that can study the microcosm. in particular, Rutherford's α-scattering experiment unveiled the microscopic world step by step, and later the large Particle Collider was still using this principle. And, of course, the Wilson Cloud Room and so on. There is also no shortage of great experimental scientists such as Becquerel and Mr. and Mrs. Curie. Therefore, in fact, observation technology is the driving force for the development of science. Relativity and quantum mechanics are also considered to be the third peak in the history of science. The fourth peak of particle physics standard model science is the particle physics standard model, which is based on quantum mechanics and special relativity. It began about 1950, and many scientists and laboratories began to devote themselves to related research one after another. In the 20th century, scientists found more than 100 kinds of particles, but scientists are confused about what these particles are. Later, they found that these particles can be classified, one is called fermions, they are the smallest units of matter, and the other is bosons, which transmit interactions. The establishment of the standard model of particle physics depends on the efforts of a group of outstanding physicists, including Yang Zhenning, Weinberg, Higgs, Feynman, Gherman and so on. But they alone are not enough. They also need a large number of experimental physicists and colliders from all over the world. It can be said that with the development of science, not only theoretical physicists need to open their brains, but the means of observation are becoming more and more important. without LHC to upgrade the equipment, we would not be able to observe the Higgs boson at all. Similarly, the reason why the gravitational waves predicted by relativity could not be observed at that time lies in the observation technique. Early theoretical physicists were actually much happier than today's theoretical physicists, because the world they wanted to describe basically used simple experimental equipment.