The Importance of Understanding the Physical World

The search for new fundamental principles and improving our understanding of the physical world was once the central activity of physics. When people discovered the principles of quantum mechanics, it opened up the description of materials,. The innovations of lasers and microelectronics and all that stuff came. And then there were still questions about how atomic nuclei work or where the energy comes from. But to a first approximation, that drive has dissipated because we've understood the data.