Something I was told once by a particle physicist that really resonated with me was that almost every revolution in science and engineering has a direct cause that can be traced back to finally being able to measure some new property or measure some property in an much improved way (this jives with my understanding of most things: as a random example, debugging is generally greatly improved by understanding more of the space of the problem). This seems to be one of those breakthroughs, so I'm cautiously excited. Would be interested in an expert in the field to confirm/temper my excitement.
There's a quote from Michelson that "the future truths of physical science are to be looked for in the sixth place of decimals". Many misinterpret this to be a statement that 'there's nothing new to be discovered', but his actual point was that discovering new science requires rigorously searching out and understanding even small deviations in measurements.
Here's the full quote:
"While it is never safe to affirm that the future of Physical Science has no marvels in store even more astonishing than those of the past, it seems probable that most of the grand underlying principles have been firmly established and that further advances are to be sought chiefly in the rigorous application of these principles to all the phenomena which come under our notice. It is here that the science of measurement shows its importance — where quantitative work is more to be desired than qualitative work. An eminent physicist remarked that the future truths of physical science are to be looked for in the sixth place of decimals."
