Yeah physics departments should share this article with incoming students, to help them see where the field is going. Although one thing missing is that I would want to find another article that illustrates the ways that physics research is improving and helping our lives today.

I started out in physics, was interested in relativity and the like, but thought ahead to a career in physics and saw that folks were into string theory, which didn't really appeal to me, and I wasn't seeing how physics research was helping people today. I should have done more research into the field before leaving it, but, I went into physics and science education research and cognitive science. Ironically, a similar article like this one got me into cognitive science (before I even started college), an interview with Patricia Churchland by Bill Moyers.

It's funny, for each thousand miles of space explored, we explored a mm or less of what is beneath us. We know what primal forces govern building blocks of space and time but we don't know how bicycle works.

For every profound truth we discover, there is an inane mystery we are yet to discover.

Commercial and military applications of rockets and satellites have always been important in improving access to space. There's no comparable reason to deliver a probe to the Mariana trench or to dig a few km into the surface.

And we do know exactly how bicycles work. EXACTLY. This one is up there with the one about NASA spending millions on a space pen.