Twentieth-century physics produced major theoretical triumphs that explained phenomena on subatomic and cosmic scales. The Standard Model of elementary particles and the standard model of cosmology represent the culmination of twentieth-century physics. Experiments and observations have revealed unresolved puzzles such as dark matter, dark energy, cosmic inflation, baryogenesis, massive neutrinos, and the strong CP problem. Theorists have struggled to make significant progress on many of these issues over the past 25+ years. Criticism of theorists overlooks ongoing progress driven by exploring ideas at the limits of experimental and observational reach. Historical theoretical predictions included positrons, neutrinos, and quarks, among others.
After all, the 20th century was a century of theoretical triumphs: we were able, on both subatomic and cosmic scales, to at last make sense of the Universe that surrounded and comprised us. We figured out what the fundamental forces and interactions governing physics were, what the fundamental constituents of matter were, how they assembled to form the world we observe and inhabit, and how to predict what the results of any experiment performed with those quanta would be.
Combined, the Standard Model of elementary particles and the standard model of cosmology represent the culmination of 20th century physics. While experiments and observations have revealed a number of hitherto unsolved puzzles - puzzles like dark matter, dark energy, cosmic inflation, baryogenesis, massive neutrinos, the strong CP problem, and numerous others - theorists have failed to make significant progress on all of these issues over the past 25+ years.
Have they all simply been wasting their time? That's an unfair accusation. It's easy to criticize, but suggestions for what they should be doing instead are largely even worse. If you take a fairer look at the situation, you'll realize that progress has been indeed occurring, because exploring ideas when you're at the frontiers of what experiment and observation can teach you is still the best tool we have in our arsenal.
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