Tony L
Administrator
Science is alive and well IMHO, e.g. we now know Uranus smells of farts (Nature, iflscience).
Military spending drives very little research these days.
I would have thought that the problem with quantum radar for an early warning system is that it will tell you that a missile is both there, and not there.
Things will pick up again when A.I. approaches the singularity.
Several biological phenomena are now thought to use quantum mechanics, photosynthesis being the main one. It needs quantum tunneling to work.I do not believe that Science is hitting a brick wall. It may be that the Engineering is taking longer to make use of new science. Engineering being the practical application of science is where the general public get to see results. It is still case that there is more science than ever taking place. Statistics like 'more science published in the 5 years than in all of human history up until' (Do not take this literally, I paraphrase - you get the idea)
As an example I have been reading about the potential for Carbon nano technology as tubes and Graphene for years. Applications are slowly coming through.
Continued work in areas like Quantum mechanics is coming to computing, slowly, right now.
I recently read a book (ruddy hard work it was too) on Quantum Biology - the root where Biology gets driven by quantum processes. Fascinating - and interestingly still does not get much of a steer on 'life' and even less on 'intelligent' life.