What are the biggest recent advances in physics?

[MarkTheQuark]

My girlfriend is in her undergraduate biology course, and one of her professors said the following sentence: "Physicists are jealous of Biologists, as their field has been stagnant for years, with no new things to discover."
I know this isn't true. I even got to argue with her about how this is purely her teacher's egocentrism and in a way, he thinks that way because it's not his field of study.
In a way, a lay person outside the field of biology might think the same way, for example: "Biology is stagnant, the only thing left for them is to discover new species" and this is also not true.

So, setting aside the self-centered discussion of this, what have been the biggest recent advances in physics for you? It can be in the area of classical mechanics, quantum mechanics, relativity and among other areas.

 

[jedishrfu]

The teacher is probably referring to String theory which has sucked up a lot of resources and produced little in recent years. A lot has happened in the experimental world and cosmology.

Look to Phys.org for articles on recent physics developments. There is always something going on in all of physics.

https://phys.org/

You could send this link to her prof anonymously (to protect against any possible retribution) or, more subversively, get the physics profs to sit in her class and ask questions.

There are also many physicists working in the biological sciences.

https://magazine.caltech.edu/post/biology-through-the-eyes-of-a-physicist

 

[berkeman]

or, more subversively, get the physics profs to sit in her class and ask questions

 

[Klystron]

So, setting aside the self-centered discussion of this, what have been the biggest recent advances in physics for you? It can be in the area of classical mechanics, quantum mechanics, relativity and among other areas.

The discovery in the 1960's of the cosmic microwave background radiation (CMBR) and subsequent refinements of CMBR data from advanced space-based instruments teaches us so much about the early universe and its evolution into its present observable state.

 

[pinball1970]

My girlfriend is in her undergraduate biology course, and one of her professors said the following sentence: "Physicists are jealous of Biologists, as their field has been stagnant for years, with no new things to discover."
I know this isn't true. I even got to argue with her about how this is purely her teacher's egocentrism and in a way, he thinks that way because it's not his field of study.
In a way, a lay person outside the field of biology might think the same way, for example: "Biology is stagnant, the only thing left for them is to discover new species" and this is also not true.

So, setting aside the self-centered discussion of this, what have been the biggest recent advances in physics for you? It can be in the area of classical mechanics, quantum mechanics, relativity and among other areas.

That's nuts. Just three discoveries off the bat? In the last ten years? Gravitational waves, Higgs Boson and image of black holes. All firsts and
This is without even mentioning the JWST!
The data coming out of Webb could change current cosmology.
Big stuff!