The first discoveries were realizations that each change of scale brought new phenomena and new kinds of behavior. For modern particle physicists, the process has never ended. Every new accelerator, with its increase in energy and speed, extends science’s field of view to tinier particles and briefer time scales, and every extension seems to bring new information. At first blush, the idea of consistency on new scales seems to provide less information. In part, that is because a parallel trend in science has been toward reductionism. Scientists break things apart and look at them one at a time.
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