APOD: Barred Spiral Galaxy NGC 1073 (2012 Feb 20)

[Wolf Kotenberg]

Keep working on your theories with new data coming in you might be surprised that the universe is infinitely vast and never to be understood completely.

My feeling is just the opposite. The more we learn, the more we realize that the Universe is fundamentally simple and easy to understand. I think that within a century or two there will be no more science- we will totally understand the laws of physics, and fully know how things work. Scientific knowledge will be complete.

Of course, just as an artist can completely understand her simple medium (a box of crayons, perhaps), the number of unique pieces of art that can be created is infinite. We can live in a Universe that is both fundamentally simple and at the same time infinitely complex. But once we understand the underlying rules, the infinite complexity becomes a subject for philosophers and engineers, not scientists (as the term now applies).

Yes the universe is fundamentally simple...........until you do the math. And just when our scientists get close, kaboom something that is not supposed to haoppen, happens. My boss at the big Kite Kompany had a red bumbersticker in his office that summed it all up. And it was not " if you can't impress them with knowledge, dazzle them with BS "

[Chris Peterson]

Yes the universe is fundamentally simple...........until you do the math. And just when our scientists get close, kaboom something that is not supposed to haoppen, happens.

It's possible. But it doesn't happen much, anymore. I think that's because we are truly homing in on the laws of nature, and much more science now is about refining our understanding than about developing fundamentals. Certainly, there remain some big holes in our understanding, but at the current rate of progress, I don't think those will remain for long.