(July 18, 2017 at 4:26 pm)Khemikal Wrote: What has been, in your estimation, the most consequential discovery in physics in the last 5 years?
Well, the biggies in fundamental physics are obviously the Higgs boson 5 years ago, and gravitational waves two years ago. Those two have a huge impact on their respective fields, but I wonder whether there wasn't another discovery in an applied field which I simply haven't yet heard of and which will have a profound impact on everyday technology. For instance, the Nobel for Grünberg who discovered the giant magnetoresistance which was the basis for hard disk data storage. I didn't know it existed at all until he got his Nobel even though he was basically in my back yard, and it was arguably a very important discovery for our everyday lives.
I'll exclude the Higgs boson because it has been 5 years and a few weeks, so the big one is Gravitational Waves, for several reasons: we finally have direct evidence that black holes exist, and that Einstein's equations are pretty much exactly valid even in those extreme conditions where two black holes merge. With a bit of luck, this will open up a whole field of observations using gravitational waves, and (e)LISA, to me the most incredible space experiment ever conceived, can go forward.
The fool hath said in his heart, There is a God. They are corrupt, they have done abominable works, there is none that doeth good.
Psalm 14, KJV revised edition
