Physics

Physics is an intrinsically human search. A science that is simultaneously intuitive and magical. We are born with innate instincts for how the world is going to work. Children have the intuition that if they throw a ball up in the air it will come back down. They know that the force they apply when throwing a ball will determine the distance it travels. Having such instincts implies that an understanding of the world, even if elementary, is deeply rooted within us. Physics is thus inherently human.

Physics is also magical. It encompasses the field of the barley known. Take nuclear physics. A realm that is so counter to human nature but yet beckons an innate feeling inside to delve deeper. To uncover the very fabric that forms us and everything around us, if fabric at all. The epitome of human curiosity. A field that so adequately embodies my favorite quote: “Any sufficiently advanced technology is indistinguishable from magic” -Arthur C. Clarke. The world of the subatomic and quantum is rampant with what resembles magic. And the search for an explanation of this “sufficiently advanced technology” that the universe has generously provided is what I view as Nuclear Physics. A field that I feel instinctively drawn to. But there are many fields within physics that push this frontier. That attempt to uncover the unknown. 

Therefore, the job of a physicist is to follow their inner child. To liberate the curiosity that society has taught them to contain. For without curiosity we are no different than a rock. Without curiosity we are condemned to a life of monotony. If not for our innate need to probe and explore, we would not have crossed the ocean much less reached the moon. Physics is the search for what’s inside and beyond and everything in between. Hence, the search is an attempting to understand what may be alien but our eagerness to continue searching, to continue looking for answers is human. A good physicist, will thus not let go of their inner child. They must simultaneously acknowledge that this search inherently means that the universe does not abide by their rules whilst also not letting the universe stump them. 

The goal of physics is to get one step closer to understanding the universe, and thus ourselves. For we are children of the cosmos. Creatures subjected to seemingly predetermined laws and forces. Animals endowed with a need to understand that which appears to confine them.