"Man is most free when his tools are proportionate to his needs." -- Soetsu Yanagi, Japanese philosopher. "Simplicity boils down to two steps: Identify the essential. Eliminate the rest." -- Leo Babauta, American blogger and journalist. In 1900, Lord Kelvin reportedly declared during an address to the British Association for the Advancement of Science, "There is nothing new to be discovered in physics now. All that remains is more and more precise measurement." Just five years later, Albert Einstein burst onto the scene with a unique theoretical approach that helped firmly establish the precarious new field of study we now call quantum physics, and we're still exploring its ramifications today. The lesson here? Just because we've studied a field intensely for a century or more doesn't … [Read more...]