Philipp von Jolly? Max Planck? George Gamow? Neil de Grasse Tyson? Richard Feynman? Ian Stewart? Apocryphal?
Question for Quote Investigator: According to legend, a talented student asked a prominent physicist about the future of his field, and the response was thoroughly discouraging:
Almost everything is already discovered, and all that remains is to fill a few unimportant holes.
Reportedly, the student was Max Planck who eventually became a Nobel-prize- winning quantum physicist. Would you please explore the authenticity of this anecdote? Who was the pessimistic physicist?
Reply from Quote Investigator: In 1924 Max Planck was a Professor of Theoretical Physics at the University of Berlin in Germany. He delivered a guest lecture at the University of Munich. Planck recounted his experience as a student when he approached experimental physicist Philipp von Jolly to learn more about his future career. The conversation with Jolly occurred sometime between 1874 when Planck began his studies and 1879 when he defended his PhD thesis. The following passage in German is followed by an English rendering. Boldface added to excerpts by QI:1
Als ich meine physikalischen Studien begann und bei meinem ehrwürdigen Lehrer Philipp v Jolly wegen der Bedingungen und Aussichten meines Studiums mir Rat erholte, schilderte mir dieser die Physik als eine hochentwickelte, nahezu voll ausgereifte Wissenschaft, die nunmehr, nachdem ihr durch die Entdeckung des Prinzips der Erhaltung der Energie gewissermaßen die Krone aufgesetzt sei, wohl bald ihre endgültige stabile Form angenommen haben würde. Wohl gäbe es vielleicht in einem oder dem anderen Winkel noch ein Stäubchen oder ein Bläschen zu prüfen und einzuordnen, aber das System als Ganzes stehe ziemlich gesichert da, und die theoretische Physik nähere sich merklich demjenigen Grade der Vollendung, wie ihn etwa die Geometrie schon seit Jahrhunderten besitze.
When I began my studies in physics and sought the advice of my esteemed teacher, Philipp von Jolly, regarding the conditions and prospects of my studies, he described physics to me as a highly developed, nearly fully mature science—one which, now that the discovery of the principle of the conservation of energy had, as it were, placed the crown upon it, would likely soon assume its final, stable form. While there might perhaps remain a speck of dust or a bubble here or there to be examined and classified, the system as a whole stood quite secure, and theoretical physics was perceptibly approaching that degree of perfection which, for instance, geometry had already possessed for centuries.
QI believes that the short quotation under examination was not spoken by Philipp von Jolly or Max Planck; instead, the modern quotation was created by an unknown person as a paraphrase of the passage above.
Below are additional selected citations in chronological order.
In 1958 physicist and science communicator George Gamow published “Matter, Earth, and Sky”. Gamow wrote a thematically similar statement. He suggested that the field of cosmology had largely reached maturity:2
In the study of the universe, we have expanded our knowledge to a limit beyond which nothing basically new has been found. Even the 200-inch telescope of the Palomar Mountain Observatory permits us to see only more of the same galaxies that were seen through the 100-inch telescope on Mount Wilson, and a 300-inch, 400-inch, etc. telescope will most probably see just more of the same.
Thus, it seems that we now have a rather complete general picture of the universe around us — both of the vast expanses of the macrocosm and of the vanishingly small structures of the microcosm. Using our analogy with geography, we could say that America has been discovered, Magellans have sailed around the world, and the contours of the land and oceans have been roughly plotted on maps.
In 1965 a series of lectures by physicist Richard Feynman were published under the title “The Character of Physical Law”. Feynman offered the following elegiac passage about discovering the fundamental laws of nature:3
We are very lucky to live in an age in which we are still making discoveries. It is like the discovery of America — you only discover it once. The age in which we live is the age in which we are discovering the fundamental laws of nature, and that day will never come again. It is very exciting, it is marvellous, but this excitement will have to go.
In 1969 Alan E. Nourse M.D. published “Universe, Earth, and Atom: The Story of Physics”. Nourse stated that some scientists believed that major problems in physics would remain unsolved:4
Not all physicists are quite so sanguine about the future of their work. Many feel that a major break point has been reached in the search of the outer reaches of the cosmos and the exploration of the micro-universe of nuclear physics. Some feel that we have reached a point where there is relatively little remaining to be penetrated that human minds are capable of penetrating.
These men are not by any means contending that physicists have already discovered everything there is to know. They merely contend that many of the major problems faced by physicists today are likely to remain insoluble, beyond the reach of human capacity to understand them any better than they are already understood.
In 1996 “Scientific American” magazine published a letter which included a condensed English translation of the key passage from Planck’s lecture:5
Regarding Gerald Holton’s essay “The Controversy over the End of Science” [SCIENTIFIC AMERICAN, October 1995], it is interesting to reread a lecture by Max Planck from December 1, 1924:
“When I began my physical studies [in Munich in 1874] and sought advice from my venerable teacher Philipp von Jolly…he portrayed to me physics as a highly developed, almost fully matured science…. Possibly in one or another nook there would perhaps be a dust particle or a small bubble to be examined and classified, but the system as a whole stood there fairly secured, and theoretical physics approached visibly that degree of perfection which, for example, geometry has had already for centuries.”
In 2001 astrophysicist and science communicator Neil de Grasse Tyson published an article titled “The Beginning of Science” in “Natural History” magazine. Tyson included a condensed English translation of the key passage from Planck’s lecture. The translation was the same as the version in the letter immediately above:6
In a 1924 lecture, the physicist Max Planck reflected on advice given to him as a student in 1874:
When I began my physical studies and sought advice from my venerable teacher Philipp von Jolly . . .
In 2007 Ian Stewart published “Why Beauty Is Truth: A History of Symmetry” which contained a single sentence paraphrasing the key passage from Planck’s lecture:7
“Almost everything is already discovered, and all that remains is to fill a few holes.” This is discouraging news for a talented young man intending to study physics, especially when the news comes from someone who ought to know: in this case, Philipp von Jolly, a physics professor.
The date was 1874, and von Jolly’s view reflected what most physicists of the period believed: physics was done.
Also, in 2007 Jane Weir published the short biography “Max Planck: Uncovering the World of Matter: which contained the following:8
Planck studied at the University of Munich. A physics teacher there told him not to study physics! The teacher said, “In this field, almost everything is already discovered …. All that remains is to fill a few holes.”
In 2011 James D. Stein published “Cosmic Numbers: The Numbers That Define Our Universe” which contained the following:9
Planck was interested in physics, so he sought out the advice of Philipp von Jolly of the University of Munich, which he was to enter. Jolly, primarily an experimental physicist, was not particularly sanguine about the future of physics as an intellectual discipline. He told Planck that “in this field, almost everything is already discovered, and all that remains is to fill a few unimportant holes.” (I can’t ever imagine telling this to a student or prospective student …)
In 2016 University of Michigan Professor of Physics James D. Wells published an article titled “Prof. von Jolly’s 1878 prediction of the end of theoretical physics as reported by Max Planck”. The article reprinted the key passage from Planck’s 1924 lecture in German. It also included the following English translation:10
“As I began my university studies I asked my venerable teacher Philipp von Jolly for advice regarding the conditions and prospects of my chosen field of study. He described physics to me as a highly developed, nearly fully matured science, that through the crowning achievement of the discovery of the principle of conservation of energy it will arguably soon take its final stable form. It may yet keep going in one corner or another, scrutinizing or putting in order a jot here and a tittle there, but the system as a whole is secured, and theoretical physics is noticeably approaching its completion to the same degree as geometry did centuries ago.”
In conclusion, in 1924 Max Planck reminisced about comments he heard from Philipp von Jolly in the 1870s. Planck stated that Jolly believed the field of physics was a “nearly fully mature science”, and further advances would be like examining and classifying “a speck of dust or a bubble”. The modern quotation is a paraphrased and condensed version of the remarks credited to Jolly by Max Planck.
Image Notes: Depiction of a plasma ball from Hal Gatewood at Unsplash. The image has been cropped and resized.
Acknowledgement: Great thanks to Edward Quine whose inquiry led QI to formulate this question and perform this exploration.
- 1925, Vom Relativen Zum Absoluten (From the Relative to the Absolute) by Dr. Max Planck, Professor der Theoretischen Physik an Der Universität Berlin (Professor of Theoretical Physics at the University of Berlin), Gastvorlesung, Gehalten in der Universität München, Am 1. Dezember 1924, (Guest Lecture, Delivered at the University of Munich on December 1, 1924) Quote Page 3, Verlag Von S. Hirzel in Leipzig, Germany. (Google Books Full View) link ↩︎
- 1958 Copyright, Matter, Earth, and Sky by George Gamow (University of Colorado), Part Three: Macrocosm, Chapter: Conclusion: Science Today and Tomorrow, Quote Page 561, Prentice-Hall Inc., Englewood Cliffs, New Jersey. (Verified with scans) ↩︎
- 1965, The Character of Physical Law by Richard Feynman, Note: A series of lectures recorded by the BBC at Cornell University and televised on BBC2, Chapter 7: Seeking New Laws, Quote Page 172, British Broadcasting Corporation, London. (Verified with scans) ↩︎
- 1969 Copyright, Universe, Earth, and Atom: The Story of Physics by Alan E. Nourse M.D., Chapter 30: The Endless Investigation, Quote Page 670, Harper & Row Publishers, New York. (Verified with scans) ↩︎
- 1996 February, Scientific American, Section: Letters to the Editors, Letter Title: The Endless Frontier, Letter From: Friedrich Katscher of Vienna, Austria, Quote Page 10, Column 3, Scientific American Inc., New York. (Verified with scans) ↩︎
- 2001 February, Natural History, Volume 110, Number 1, The Beginning of Science by Neil de Grasse Tyson, Start Page 80, Quote Page 81, American Museum of Natural History, New York. (Verified with scans) ↩︎
- 2007 Copyright, Why Beauty Is Truth: A History of Symmetry by Ian Stewart, Chapter 12: A Quantum Quintet, Quote Page 199, Basic Books: A Member of the Perseus Books Group, New York. (Verified with scans) ↩︎
- 2007, Max Planck: Uncovering the World of Matter by Jane Weir, Section: New Ideas, Quote Page 8, Teacher Created Materials, Huntington Beach, California. (Verified with scans) ↩︎
- 2011 Copyright, Cosmic Numbers: The Numbers That Define Our Universe by James D. Stein, Chapter 8: The Planck Constant, Quote Page 104, Basic Books: A Member of the Perseus Books Group, New York. (Verified with scans) ↩︎
- Website: University of Michigan Deep Blue Documents, Database: Research Collection of Physics Department of University of Michigan, Document label: Scholardox E7, Article title: Prof. von Jolly’s 1878 prediction of the end of theoretical physics as reported by Max Planck, Article author: James D. Wells (Leinweber Center for Theoretical Physics (MCTP), University of Michigan, Ann Arbor), Date on document: March 6, 2016, Website description: Database hosted by University of Michigan library system. (Accessed deepblue.lib.umich.edu on May 14, 2026) link ↩︎