Physics in the 21st century

Galileo, Newton, Maxwell, Kelvin, Einstein, Curie and Borh laid the foundations of modern civilisation. The greater understanding of the universe around us and new technological abilities lifted us out of the middle ages and gave us unimaginable powers over our environment. Physics research yielded many practical results even in Newton's time (such as insight into orbital mechanics - very useful for aiming ships' cannons) and even when the cost went up astronomically during the 1940's the benefits were still so large (winning the war) that nation-states would hand out the required means to do experimentation.

 In the 21st century physics is in trouble on two fundamental fronts. First is the spiraling cost of experimentation, the new Hadron Collider being just one of the most visible examples. Like advanced space travel, new tools needed to experimentally confirm or falsify new theories have become too expensive even for the richest states in the world to build alone. The potential practical applications are often too uncertain and far off for commercial investment. As in medicine and space travel the question is not if we can build it but if we can afford to build it.

The other problem is the continued existence of the primary financier of all this research: the nation state. Like the Vatican before them nation states are in trouble in the 21st century. Unable to adapt their 18th century organisational structures to a faster pace of change in the world around them they are trying to adapt the methods and models of large corporations to become more adaptive and responsive. And in the process risk losing the very essence of what make them different from those corporations and thus their legitimacy.

How will new physics research remain relevant in the 21st century? Will only result-driven research be funded or is there a post-nation state model for purely theoretical research? In what areas of physics will we run into the brick wall of unverifyable theories?