Me and my girlfriend went to see Brian Cox live, and in the end he gave a beautiful speech about progress and purpose etc etc. I asked my girlfriend what she thought about the show and she told me that her least favorite part was, in fact, the ending speech. Now I was very confused because I took it the ending speech as "we should keep trying and not give up because we can make a place that is better for everyone." However my girlfriend took it as "progress! progress! progress!" without consideration for if that progress may be harmful (think progress in a capitalistic sense). This got me thinking about how physics (and stem as as a whole I guess) might be viewed through the eyes of the laymen. And after a considerable amount of thought, I can say that I am not happy with the public perception of physics, I give my reasons below. Consider the current global situation.…