As Chad Orzel explains, he considers Sabine Hossenfelder’s dismissal of much current physics “a little too sweeping.” A lot happened in the dull years:
The invention of the laser in 1960 was a straightforward application of the quantum theory of light presented by Einstein in 1917, but it has dramatically transformed modern life— without it, among other things, the high-bandwidth telecom network you’re using to read this would be impossible. The basic properties of semiconductors are a problem that can be worked out by second-raters and graduate students, but the invention of the transistor in 1947 had an absolutely revolutionary impact on human civilization. And so on— the vast majority of the work that’s gotten us to where we are as a species is thanks to people who were doing “normal science,” not challenging current paradigms, but exploiting them to achieve concrete goals.
Chad Orzel, “In Praise Of ‘Normal Science’” at Forbes
That said, he agrees with “Hossenfelder’s diagnosis of the problems with a particular area of physics.” If he means crackpot cosmology, he has company.
Note: Sabine Hossenfelder is the author of Lost in Math: How Beauty Leads Physics Astray, and Chad Orzel is the author of Breakfast with Einstein: The Exotic Physics of Everyday Objects. Read both.
See also: Rob Sheldon on celeb physicists Sabine Hossenfelder, Ethan Siegel, and Chad Orzel