100 Years of Physics

Sometime during the 14th century, the Italians developed a way of grinding glass so that the new curvature of the glass bends light in a way that changes the focal point of the light. These lenses were often used in spectacles to correct one's vision. More than a century after lens making had become relatively commonplace, two Dutch lens grinders combined a pair of lenses in a tube allowing them to make objects appear larger than to the naked eye. Thus, the microscope was born. The next four hundred years saw many improvements and novel new uses for these devices, and you can now buy a basic one on Amazon for under $50.

Microscopes are frequently used by students in high school biology classes to examine the structure of cells and how cells can interact with each other or their environment. The ones I used in high school were fairly sophisticated - multiple magnification levels, safety features so you don't scratch the lens when changing levels, backlit from the bottom through a diffusion grid. I didn't really think much of the technology behind them, and I still don't, because microscopes are a fairly common object in the time period we're living in. Microscopes provide crucial insight into basic biological structure that can't be obtained from a book.

In the same way that microscopes are essential in biology classes and the Bunsen burner is essential in chemistry classes, particle accelerators will one day be essential in physics classes. In 100 years particle accelerators will be available in the physics classrooms of every high school.

Recently physicists at the University of Texas created a "Table Top" particle accelerator, capable of reaching energies only previously achieved at major (read: billions of dollars and hundreds of feet in length) facilities. The size is reduced by a factor of about 10,000, and I assume that the cost of constructing the accelerator would be reduced by a similar factor. Assuming that the price of a linear accelerator is an even billion dollars, the price of the table top accelerator would be a mere hundred thousand. Big bucks for you and me, not so much for a university or school district. 

Particle physics have paved the way for some of the most important discoveries of modern technology. While computers predate the current atomic model, it wasn't until the widespread acceptance of quantum physics and Heisenberg's uncertainty principle that we learned how to miniaturize the transistor using a single electron flowing through a silicon wafer, that the modern computer revolution occurred. Modern communication systems, industrial systems, and surgical techniques all rely on lasers to perform precise operations, none of which would be possible without a clear understanding of both the wave and particle nature of light.

Much as early microscopes helped accelerate the progress of biology (and therefor medicine),  particle accelerators have helped accelerate the progress of physics (and therefor technology). Just a  few hundred years ago having access to a microscope would have been a great privilege, but now it is trivial to find or buy one. A hundred years from now the same will be true of particle accelerators and we will be in a completely new era, where everyone has access to pieces of the puzzle that is the mysterious nature of physics, and an era in which we may discover everything there is to know about the subject.

Of course with the discovery of new physics fundamentals will come an entirely new generation of technology to exploit those fundamentals. From the manipulation of gravity and time, to warp drives and teleporters, to things that our still Newtonian brains haven't even considered to be within the realm of imagining.