Science ... Harumphhhh ...

I came across these two stories, both wonderfully scientific in nature, both dealing with subjects, for the most part over my head and both leaving me asking the question: " Errr ... Ya ... why?


1. Galaxy shocker: laws of physics may vary throughout the universe
2. Pi record smashed as team finds two-quadrillionth digit


The first one blah, blahs some talk to say that some really small number of some obscure measurement is somewhat different really far away.
The second one blah blahs about how some 1000 computers took 23 days to figure out Pi to the 2,000,000,000,000,000th digit ... Ok, cool I guess ... but ultimately so what?


Maybe I've completely turned in an old fuddy duddy (Ok, so there's no maybes about it) but these 'discoveries' don't exactly rock the world.  I kinda getting the feeling that these are more of the 'because we can' variety and less of the benefit to mankind ... kind.  
I'm sure those of the scientific community are all giggly and full of "OOO's ans AAAh's" but really, unless it's something that we think can help our lives, (I'm strapping on the small world tunnel vision) us dull normals find it really hard to care (Putting a camera in the iPod Touch ... Yes Sir, I can wrap my head around that for sure.)
I'm all for the furthering of science but fuck (Yes I wrote butfuck ... it made me laugh too) discover something that's really gonna mean something to us. You know, cure cancer or build something so that I can watch TV in my mind or something like that.
The Laws of Physics may vary throughout the universe but until the day comes, either when or where, I don't smash my head open falling down the stairs, I'm not gonna get all misty over some photon-ish thingy that gets a bit (a Star Trek term needed here) for a fraction of a fraction of a part of a second.
And while I know that Pi is an endless set of numbers, who gives a shit what the 37 ca-gillion digit is and that it happens to be the number 6 (I don't really know that it is a 6 ... I am, in fact, guessing and ... I don't care ...)