The search for fundamental truths/ The family tree

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Question English Answer English
a person who studies physics or whose job is connected with physics
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physicist
physicists dreamed of a final theory of fundamental physics,
a mathematical statement in which you show that two amounts are equal using mathematical symbols:
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equation
a perfect set of equations
a situation that has no hope of making progress:
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dead end
Negotiators have reached a dead end in their attempts to find a peaceful solution.
all attempts at a deeper understanding of nature are dead ends.
to go past something by being a greater amount or degree:
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overtake
Our US sales have now overtaken our sales in Europe.
Today that dream is being overtaken by the suspicion that there is no such thing.
to support someone or something:
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lend your support
I have lent my support to his plan for a private referendum.
This will lend support to those who have long claimed that research into fundamental physics is a waste of time and money
not clear and difficult to understand or see:
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obscure
Official policy has changed, for reasons that remain obscure.
at best it provides answers to obscure questions which few people understand or care about.
a doubt or feeling of not being able to agree with or accept something completely:
doubt
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reservation
Workers and employees shared deep reservations about the wisdom of the government's plans for the industry.
do these reservations undermine pure physics as a scientific pursuit?
to make someone less confident, less powerful, or less likely to succeed, or to make something weaker, often gradually:
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undermine
Criticism just undermines their confidence.
these reservations undermine pure physics as a scientific pursuit?
to be the main or most important result of something:
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boil down to
What it all boils down to is a lack of communication.
What it boils down to is whether we think the search for fundamental truths is important.
a product that develops from another more important product:
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spin-off
The research has had spin-offs in the development of medical equipment.
There have been plenty of technological spin-offs from the space race and other experiments.
a long search for something that is difficult to find, or an attempt to achieve something difficult:
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quest
Nothing will stop them in their quest for truth
This quest for knowledge is a defining human quality
unusual and strange, sometimes in an unpleasant way:
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peculiar
It's peculiar that they didn't tell us they were going away.
The trouble with family-known-things is that they always seem peculiar
a person who lives alone and apart from society
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hermit
I've probably made us sound like hostile hermits
very thin, or easily broken or destroyed:
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flimsy
thin. You won't be warm enough in that flimsy dress
She'd enclosed a piece of flimsy paper
suddenly filled with strong feelings of shock and worry:
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aghast
Mum and Dad had looked aghast.

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