Amy W. Lin: Topic 7: Are There Limits to Science?

	I found the last speaker's corner 
presentation a bit hard to follow.  
I managed to grasp the main idea 
of their topic but failed to tie 
together all the individual 
subtopics to the overall goal.  
The attempt to summarize the 
entire presentation at the end was 
a good idea, but unfortunately it 
was hurried and disjointed.  Other 
than that, I thought they tried to 
explain as best as they could some 
very difficult, technical 
concepts.  

	After considering all the 
evidence given during the 
presentation, I would have to 
agree that modern science is 
increasingly leaving the realm of 
the average person.  For example, 
very few people in this world have 
any solid grasp of quantum physics 
and the recently proposed 
"superstring" theory, purported to 
be the final unified theory of 
physics, is as far removed from 
quantum physics as quantum physics 
is from Newtonian physics.  
Whereas the accepted, comfortable 
laws of physics were explained by 
empirical evidence, these new 
theories will be increasingly 
difficult to prove empirically.  
As physicist dig deeper and deeper 
into the atom to find more 
answers, it will be necessary to 
build bigger and more expensive 
accelerators to test their 
hypothesis.  The society's 
response is, as we saw with the 
superconducting supercollider 
project, to set a cultural, 
political and financial limit.  

	Science today is limited by its 
past.  The experiments nowadays 
seem to concentrate on finding 
empirical evidence for these laws 
laid down by our predecessors.  
There can be no anticipated 
breakthroughs or revelations if 
the only thing scientist today do 
is prove, in greater detail, the 
work of past giants.  The belief 
that all the important discoveries 
have already been made is an 
extreme which I hesitate to 
accept.  According to the 
definition given by the group, 
contextual realism explains that 
science is grounded in truth, but 
affected by perspectives.  
Therefore, if we viewed basic 
scientific laws from a different 
angle, we might be able to gain 
some new revelations concerning 
the secrets of the universe.