Scientific disappointment Memes

The initial excitement followed by crushing disappointment of theoretical physics in one meme. The top panel captures that fleeting moment when you see a headline about a unified theory—your heart races, your pupils dilate, you're ready to rewrite textbooks. Then reality hits: it's probably just another crackpot idea published in a predatory journal with peer review standards lower than undergraduate attendance on Friday afternoons. The quest for a Theory of Everything that reconciles quantum mechanics with general relativity has been physics' white whale for decades. Einstein spent his later years chasing it. String theorists have built entire careers on it. Meanwhile, the universe continues existing, completely unbothered by our mathematical frustrations.