When you get back to fundamental questions - 'Why should anything exist?' A, I'm not sure what the answer is in terms of the science, and B, I'm not sure that science can even ask that question.
Sentiment: NEGATIVE
Science is very good at answering the 'how' questions. 'How did the universe evolve to the form that we see?' But it is woefully inadequate in addressing the 'why' questions. 'Why is there a universe at all?' These are the meaning questions, which many people think religion is particularly good at dealing with.
The scientific issues that engage people most are the truly fundamental ones: is the universe infinite? Is life just a sideshow in the cosmos? What happened before the Big Bang? Everyone is flummoxed by such questions, so there is, in a sense, no gulf between experts and the rest.
Science shows us what exists but not what to do about it.
The main reason why people should care about research in fundamental physics is the same reason they care about astronomy and cosmology. People, children, want to know what we're made out of, how it works, and why the universe is the way it is.
Science may eventually explain the world of How. The ultimate world of Why may remain for contemplation, philosophy, religion.
Nothing exists except atoms and empty space; everything else is opinion.
The scientific mind does not so much provide the right answers as ask the right questions.
Physics grapples with the largest questions the universe presents. 'Where did the totality of reality come from?' 'Did time have a beginning?'
That is the essence of science: ask an impertinent question, and you are on the way to a pertinent answer.
There's something really beautiful about science, that human beings can ask these questions and can answer them. You can make models of nature and understand how it works.