We went to a talk yesterday evening by Prof Brian Cox, physicist and cosmologist.
The presentation was on the origins of the universe, life and everything ; it covered the theory and mathematics of black holes and the space-time continuum. Very heady stuff, very well done, and with a lot of excellent effects and photos from space telescopes.
Despite being impressed I came away wondering two things:
What is the point of these branches of science? It's fascinating and clever but what does it achieve?
Secondly, it's seems more descriptive of the universe than anything else - so is it really about science? Is it closer to philosophy or art-through-technology than practical science?
I doubt I'm the first sceptic in the room, but it's not an area that I've been challenged to think about before.
@MikeFromLFE I think it depends on what you think science is supposed to do. Most scientists think it’s to get to the truth about the world around us. There’s a whole branch of philosophy that specialises in science. Having studied it I’d recommend the book I started with, “What is this thing called Science?” by Alan Chalmers. You can probably find it used for fairly cheap as it’s been a textbook for students in the past. :)
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