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In the modern day and age, it is generally considered impossible to be a ‘scientist like Faraday’, for a number of reasons. Most of these reasons stem from the unavoidable fact that science has moved on since the early 1800s.Faraday is often held up as an example of a physicist who was a ‘pure physicist’, but who was never formally trained, and who never used mathematics in his studies. This is indeed true — it is said that Faraday’s mathematical abilities did not even extend to trigonometry!I often encounter people who want to work as a physicist without a formal education, or have come up with their own theories of physics (often without a single calculation!), and when I talk about how vital it is to learn mathematics and physics before you can contribute to physics, Faraday is invariably named as a counterexample — after all, Faraday did so much without a physics education, who am I to say that these geniuses (genii?) aren’t like Faraday?The simple fact of the matter is that, as I said, it is no longer 1825.Back in the 1820s, physics and chemistry were still, pretty much, in their infancy. It was difficult, though not entirely impossible for someone to learn all the physics and chemistry that existed at that time — and indeed, various people have been described as ‘the last person to know everything’ up to the 1830s and beyond. Keeping up with the latest innovations in science was a simple matter of tracking the work of a couple of dozen notable people at the most.If you were to propose to a physicist today, in 2018, that you might learn all there is to know about physics, they would probably laugh at you. Physics (like most scientific fields) is an enormous enterprise nowadays. It is difficult to keep up with the latest innovations in a single subfield because of the sheer volume of papers that is being published — let alone expand your knowledge across multiple subfields!As Newton said, science is about ‘standing on the shoulders of giants’ — every new discovery builds upon the work that came before it, even if it contradicts and overturns that work. To understand the motivation and meaning behind the new ideas, it is first necessary to understand the motivation behind the old ideas. You can’t simply jump in at the deep end, without understanding why the field has taken the direction that it has.The days where you could, with a handful of textbooks and sitting in the back of a few lectures, know the modern state of physics are far, far, far behind us.For example, if you wanted to know enough physics to study neutron stars you would first need to study the laws of orbits discovered by Kepler in the 1610s, the physics of gravity and mechanics discovered by Newton in the 1690s, the physics of electromagnetism discovered by Faraday, Maxwell and so on between 1810 and 1880, the physics of relativity developed by Einstein between 1905 and 1915, the quantum physics developed between 1899 and 1930, the statistical mechanics which was built on quantum physics by Einstein, Bose, Fermi and Dirac in 1924–1926, and then some of the simple subatomic physics developed from the 1930s onwards.Only then would you understand the physics behind a neutron star — and you haven’t even studied the astrophysics necessary to put your studies of a neutron star into a useful context yet!So if somebody who was not formally trained came along and told me that they had a new theory about neutron stars…? You can see why physicists are often rather sceptical when presented with these new ideas, especially when they come from people who think the mathematics is just a nice little addition on the end.It is a necessary, though admittedly undesirable, fact that as science expands and grows, scientists are forced to become more specialised. As physics probes deeper and deeper, ever more work is required to actually get anywhere, which leaves precious time for exploring ideas outside of your own little niche.A corollary of this is that the days of the ‘lone wolf pioneer’ scientist are often considered to be over.If you think about the famous names that you know of — Einstein, Newton, Faraday, Dirac, and so on — they were all scientists working, more or less, on their own or in small groups, to break down the frontiers of knowledge, single handedly dismantling the status quo.But who are the Einsteins of today? Who are the individuals who are driving us forward? Why has there not been another Einstein?To answer this, I would like to refer to one of the most monumental scientific papers in recent years: the announcement of the discovery of Gravitational Waves with an EM counterpart, GW170817: Observation of Gravitational Waves from a Binary Neutron Star Inspiral, in particular, the list of authors.The author list on this paper is 141 lines long. At around 8 people per line, that’s more than one thousand people credited as working on this one single paper — and that’s not including the thousands of builders and engineers actually required to construct the multiple detection facilities needed to make the observation!If you compare that experimental observation, to the image of Faraday pootling around his lab doing experiments, the difference is quite stark!Or how about the LHC? This image below is of some of the LHCb team (which Wikipedia lists as containing 1270 people in total) — one of seven teams working on the LHC.These experiments are at the forefront of modern science — they are the cutting edge.It’s a far cry from Faraday in his lab, where one man (and his valet, obviously), could push the frontiers of knowledge with a few magnets and a coil of wire.Physics has reached the level of advancement where many of the most important projects can only be carried out by thousands of people working in unison, towards a common goal.That’s not to say that individuals don’t have their role to play in moving stuff forward, and many people don’t work in groups. But the days where one lone scientist could dismantle everything we thought we knew with the equipment in their garage are long since passed.Faraday was born into an incredible time for science.There was so much left to be discovered, that an untrained genius could just walk in and start discovering things — and make no mistake, Faraday was a genius, and his hard work and ingenuity are not things that I want to downplay.However, it is important to remember that Faraday and his work were a product of his time — a time that has come and gone.Physics (and indeed, all of science), has progressed leaps and bounds since Faraday’s day, the level of knowledge we have about the universe would be simply inconceivable to Faraday and his peers.The downside of this is that, in the process, all the ‘low hanging fruit’ has been plucked from the tree of knowledge. Where once a single man could harvest the fruit on his own, the modern scientist must work together, in unity, to reach ever greater heights.This does not diminish the achievements of either Faraday, or the modern-day physicist, it is just important to remember that as the level of knowledge has changed, so the role of the scientist has changed.The only way to truly be a scientist in the mold of Faraday is to travel back in time, to an era where scientists like Faraday were possible — because, for better or for worse — those days are behind us.

Are the Casio Edifice watches good?All of the Japanese brands have their own more or less famous lines and sub-brands - and Casio is no exception to the rule. the main actor on the scene for Casio is its extremely popular G-Shock series.Actually, the G-Shock is so popular that it almost steals the scene from other players of the same team - and this is the case with the Edifice. series, which ranges from basic chronos to advanced models featuring solar batteries or self-adjusting by connecting to atomic clocks.Casio - on the contrary of Seiko - has always been a digital company (founded in 1946), so it has always focused in the field of electronics - so you would expect their watches based on this kind of technology to be good. Actually, the company (founded by four brothers, the eldest named Kashio), was so fresh and innovative that it developed the world’s first electromechanical calculator, back in 1949.The production of digital watches - as Casio was in the forefront of the development of quartz movements - began in the Eighties. One of their most famous products of the time was the digital watch-cum-calculator, which sold like crazy in the nerd community (and also by Michael J. Fox in the Back to the Future movie)!What is universally known about Casio watches is that they are workhorses. They work whenever and whatever. The Edifice series represents one of the more refined lines - built with robust materials, and also sporting some nice design, they sort of encase a G-Shock into a nicer stainless steel case. They are not that robust, but they are more classy as well - and the price is very hard to beat, being in the same niche of most fashion watches - but packing in lot more content both in features and in quality/resistance.I can tell you that from my own experience, in the forums of horology worldwide, even the most die-hard fans of mechanicals generally confess they own one (or more) Casio - so this sort of “skeleton in the closet” must indicate they are good (and yes, I have an original G-Shock as well).So, what to say? If you are in for a buy, and need a watch that gives you a lot of functions in a modern, aggressive case, and want to be sure itt continues to do so for a long time even if subject to a lot of distress, a Casio Edifice could be what you are needing.And you are bound, in their huge lineup, to find exactly the one having all the features you need, plus some.As a note to my readers, I mostly write about high-end and luxury objects, like watches, furniture and design: so if you are interested in those fields, be sure to check my other answers and follow me. And a nice upvote is always welcome!If you are a Facebook or Instagram user and like watches, please “like” The Watchonomicon. You will find links on articles, and other interesting stuff there - together with some special offers on very special watches for sale.If you think my answers are worthwhile, please nominate them here: Publish This: Quora's Publishing Nominations Blog

PayPal Holdings Inc's decision to open its network to bitcoin and its rivals was hailed by virtual coin enthusiasts as a watershed moment for cryptocurrencies and their path towards becoming a widespread means of payment.Investing in cryptocurrency in general is a good business if you are on the right path and with the right platform. After so many failed attempt on getting the right platform, I came across CryptoExchangeFx Cryptocurrency Investment Platform (www.cryptoexchangefx,com) where i get 20% of every investment i made with cryptocurrency every 10 days. It looks to good to be true until i gave it a try and trust me it has been a smooth ride all the way. Don’t give up on cryptocurrency and join the platform. Trust me, you won’t care about the price fluctuation anymore. Thank me Later.Note: This is not in any case of me trying to lure you into anything for my own personal financial gain, i am just innocently sharing with you what works for me. You can also make a research on what works for you too.But the move might do little to drag existing cryptocurrencies out of their niche in payments, according to many fintech specialists, as holders of such coins often view them as an investment asset akin to gold rather than as a means of spending.PayPal’s decision could, however, help the company attract new users in an increasingly competitive digital payments landscape where innovation is king, the experts said.It is also likely to prepare the company for the advent of mainstream digital coins, like those that could be developed by central banks, they added. Such coins are a world away from the ethos of bitcoin, which sought to subvert the financial establishment by doing away with a central issuer or authority.“I think this is more about PayPal being smart and looking to the future when fiat currencies will go digital,” said David Birch, a director at payments consultancy Consult Hyperion. “I don’t think it makes much difference for bitcoin.”PayPal said on Wednesday it would allow U.S. account holders to hold cryptocurrencies and shop with them at its 26 million merchants. The California-based company plans to expand the service to Venmo, its peer-to-peer payment app popular with younger consumers, by the first half of next year.The company said it hoped the service would help cryptocurrencies become more useful, while readying its network for the emergence of more mainstream digital coins.The shift makes PayPal one of the largest companies globally to give consumers access to cryptocurrencies and sent bitcoin’s price soaring to its highest level in over a year.“For regular people that have never heard of bitcoin, the association between PayPal and bitcoin, those are all signals for bitcoin being recognised as a digital asset that works,” said Lex Sokolin, global fintech co-head at blockchain software company ConsenSys.But that association might benefit PayPal more than cryptocurrencies, other experts suggested. Indeed, the company’s stock rose more than 5% following after its plans were revealed.‘MORE OF AN UNKNOWN’Simon Taylor, a co-founder and head of ventures at fintech consultancy 11:FS, said PayPal’s move would help it attract and retain the interest of customers, or “user engagement”.“Robinhood and Square used bitcoin for the engagement. Then the question is, would someone want to use it for merchant transactions, which is more of an unknown.”Square Inc, the payments company led by Twitter boss Jack Dorsey, has been offering crypto buying and selling in its increasingly popular P2P payment app Cash since 2018. Bitcoin revenue for Cash App jumped 600% to $875 million in the second quarter, versus a year earlier.Online brokerage Robinhood Markets Inc has been offering crypto trading since 2018 and has seen overall business boom this year.Through the move PayPal is also broadening the suite of products within its wallet, reflecting a winning strategy by Chinese rival Ant Financial, whose popular Alipay digital wallet includes services such as payments, loans and insurance.‘DARKNET-RELATED MARKET’PayPal’s vast merchant network is doubtless likely to make it more convenient for consumers to spend their crypto. By making settlement happen through traditional, or fiat, currencies, it also allows merchants to avoid exposure to volatility risk when accepting cryptocurrency payments.The real question, however, is whether people will actually want to spend their cryptocurrencies, which are seen by many as a store of value, experts said.Large companies from computer maker Dell Inc [DI.UL] to travel site Expedia Group Inc have announced plans to accept digital assets over the past 10 years, but none have prompted large-scale adoption by cryptocurrency users as a means of payments.“Nobody really wants to spend crypto,” said Michel Rauchs, author of several Cambridge University studies on cryptocurrencies and blockchain. “Everybody wants to keep it in order to benefit from potential price increase.”This was echoed by industry analysts.“If we look at history, basically bitcoin-specific payments haven’t taken off unless it’s a darknet-related market,” said Tim Swanson, the head of market intelligence at blockchain software firm Clearmatics.MAINSTREAM DIGITAL COINSLong term, however, the move is likely to help position PayPal at the forefront of facilitating payments in more mainstream digital currencies, like those that could be developed by central banks and large corporations.PayPal Chief Executive Dan Schulman said ahead of the launch that the company was working with regulators on central bank digital currencies.Major central banks around the world, including the European Central Bank, have been accelerating research on issuing their own digital currencies, with the People’s Bank of China’s digital yuan project the most advanced.Plans have been spurred on by the prospect of privately-issued tokens such as Facebook's Libra gaining wide traction. PayPal was a founding member of Libra but dropped out after a few months.