Our imagination is stretched
 to the utmost, not as in fiction,
 to imagine things which are
 not really there, but just
 to comprehend those things
 which are there.

--Richard Feynman

 Nobel Laureate in Physics

While being the most basic of the sciences, its applications have altered human history. Physicists have led the development of 20th century technology. They devised the laser, the transistor and the nuclear reactor. Their discoveries made possible computers and space exploration, atomic power and radar, cable television and compact discs. They are involved in the key technological struggles throughout the world to the define and resolve the global energy and environmental crises. 

But an education in physics provides you with more than an admission ticket to the nearest hot research laboratory. In fact, surveys show that fully three-quarters of college graduates with degrees in physics are employed where you wouldn't necessarily expect to find them: in law, in business, in teaching.