There Is A Maxim About The Universe

My Area Of Research Is Something That In All Fairness Has No Practical Usability Whatsoever And The Thing Is I'm Often Asked To Apologize For That. It Is Interesting To Me That People Ask 'what's The Point Of Doing That If It's Not Useful?' But They Never Ask That, Or Do They Very Rarely Ask That About Art Or Literature Or Music. Those Things Are Not Gonna Produce A Better Toaster.

For, After All, In Science One Achieves The Greatest Impact (and Often The Greatest Headlines) Not By Going Along With The Herd, But By Bucking Against It.

Science Is Not Just There For Technology. It's Part Of What Addressing Who You Are In The Universe And Understanding Your Place In The Cosmos. Good Art, Good Literature, Good Music - All Of That Is For That And Science Is A Part Of It.

Now, Almost One Hundred Years Later, It Is Difficult To Fully Appreciate How Much Our Picture Of The Universe Has Changed In The Span Of A Single Human Lifetime. As Far As The Scientific Community In 1917 Was Concerned, The Universe Was Static And Eternal, And Consisted Of A One Single Galaxy, Our Milky Way, Surrounded By Vast, Infinite, Dark, And Empty Space. This Is, After All, What You Would Guess By Looking Up At The Night Sky With Your Eyes, Or With A Small Telescope, And At The Time There Was Little Reason To Suspect Otherwise.

For Many, To Live In A Universe That May Have No Purpose, And No Creator, Is Unthinkable.