The limits of physics

There are two kinds of limits in scientific research:

1.      Theoretical or intrinsic limits: when these limits exist, no matter how many scientific discoveries may be made in the future, they won’t be exceeded.

2.      Practical limits: they appear when, in theory, a problem can have a solution, but there are practical reasons that make it impossible, at least for the time being. In these cases, we cannot affirm that the problem won’t be solved in the future.

Sometimes we don’t know if a given limit is theoretical or practical. In these cases, what will happen in the future is open. If the limit turns out to be theoretical, it will never be exceeded. If it is practical, it will be exceeded if our technical capabilities exceed the technical needs for its resolution, being possible that this will never happen. Take, as an example, the inherently difficult math problems I mentioned in the previous post.

Why science can’t explain everything

The difficulty of explaining everything is not due to our mental weakness, but to the very structure of the universe. In recent centuries we have discovered that the fabric of the cosmos can be considered on several different levels. While the next level has not been discovered, what happens in the previous one cannot be explained, it can just be described. Consequently, for the last known level we can never have explanations, we can only have descriptions.

Let's look at a little history:

1. Eighteenth-century chemists discovered many new substances. Not knowing what they were, all they could do was describe them in catalogs of properties, but they had no explanation of those properties.