Lest we forget... In 1894 revered scientist Albert A. Michelson,[1] reflected a general feeling in the scientific community at the time when he said, ‘the more important fundamental laws and facts of physical science have all been discovered, and these are now so firmly established that the possibility of their ever being supplanted in consequence of new discoveries is exceedingly remote . . . Our future discoveries must be looked for in the sixth place of decimals.’
Six years later Lord Kelvin,[2] widely known for determining the correct value of absolute zero as approximately -273.15 Celsius, the formulation of the first and second laws of thermodynamics and the first UK scientist to be elevated to the House of Lords, also represented a common view in the scientific establishment at the time when he said, ‘there is nothing new to be discovered in physics now. All that remains is more and more precise measurement.’
Not long after these statements were made, two revolutions in science occurred that turned classical 19th Century science (the science the above two scientists were talking about) on its head: Einstein’s General Theory of Relativity and Quantum Mechanics.
[1] Albert Abraham Michelson was an American physicist known for his work on the measurement of the speed of light and especially for the Michelson–Morley experiment. In 1907 he received the Nobel Prize in Physics.
[2] William Thomson (Lord Kelvin), 1900