This may be true partially... Although it MAY take a while for new discoveries to be utilized in all of their potential uses, highly specialized approaches in physics are letting individulas become not Jacks of all trades, but rather masters of one. This thus evolves any particual area of physics exponentially, as it is highly focused on. It can also be a sort of temporary solution to our perturbative approaches - until we find a theory of quantum gravity, we cannot utilize both relativity and quantum mechanics in any one particular project. However, we are currently making great strides while using the two theories seperately, each in its respective field of "size" - relativity for the macroscopic and quantum mechanics for the microscopic. So it can be noted that altough there ARE obvious setbacks of highly specialized physics, there are also obvious benefits.

Whilst i agree with chris, i beleive that more practicle work should be carried out as opposed to hypothisised.  I find it rediculous that the last maned space flight was more than 25 years ago!!!

but then again money can be an issue and there may be more important things that need to be tended to on earth let alone on mars/the moon.

it was?? what was the mission?

Exellent!!

You see living in the uk it takes time for (what i call) important information such as that to reach out country...thanks for the update.

I think specialization is a "necessary evil" for a field such as physics.  The general field of physics now encompasses so much information that it is impossible for one to be adequately trained in all areas of the science.  As a result, one has to pick and choose a smaller subfield of physics to specialize in.  Because the breadth and depth of the content of physics has exceeded the amount of information a human can assimilate in their formal education, we have no choice but to specialize.  It's the same reason why bureaucracies form: the task is too big to be managed by a central unit, so in order to provide any order at all, the task must be divided and managed by subunits.  Sadly, it is simply no longer possible for great physicists of the day to be like the giants of old, who were adequately trained in all the physics that was known at the time and were able to push the fronts on all sides.  And Chris is right in this too, that because we are specialized communication infrastructure becomes crucial.  Physicists have to dialogue across subfields; we need to have biophysicists working, or at least conversing, with medical physicists and solid state physicists and everything else. 

This topic is especially frustrating for me personally: I'm a senior getting ready to apply to graduate programs and facing the prospect of having to choose a subfield.  I want to study all of physics, but it simply isn't possible in the time I have.  The prospect of having to pick a subfield, almost arbitrarily, it seems, is not a happy one for me.