What does a scientist mean when she say ““It’s rare nowadays to have fundamental discoveries in science”?

Question

I was reading an article on the discovery of salty ice that may be present on exoplanets. The head scientist prefaced the discovery saying ““It’s rare nowadays to have fundamental discoveries in science”. I know she is basically saying that big science discoveries aren’t made anymore. All of the major discoveries have been made already. But that doesn’t feel right. Is she correct?

Here is the article for all those interested.

https://www.washington.edu/news/2023/02/21/newly-discovered-form-of-salty-ice-could-exist-on-surface-of-extraterrestrial-moons/

In: 19

Answer 1

One of the things that has to happen it everything has to be peer reviewed. The sad thing about science is that it’s still done by humans with human emotions, and by that, I mean it’s political. One of my professors I did research with in chemistry was black balled by the scientific community because he disproved a popular theory on cold fusion.