modern science

it seems to me, while looking at the latest issue of Smithsonian magazine sitting on my table, that modern science, especially physics, has ?eveloved? ?devolved? to two options. if we don't know something, we either take several of them and crash them into each other at high speeds or we shoot lasers at them and see what happens. i'm not saying that these options are bad or anything, it's just kind of wierd.