The Few Great Men..

Currently reading the biography of an equation [law of conservation of energy - e=mc2]
A few thoughts running through my head -

• It's only now that I'm able to appreciate the radical implications of theoritical physics. I'm wondering if there are people like me who probably understood the equation and dismissed it once it ceased to be of academic use. I'm sure there are, I'm thinking maybe we are an overwhelming majority. Especially in a society that's wired to think of knowledge as a means to a prescribed end.Also, Sheldon Cooper is a valid personification of a condescending theoritical physics genius. 
• What would it have been to live in a world where the fundamental concepts had to be defined, understood and their relationships worked out. Energy, Mass, Speed, Acceleration, Friction...We live in a world where the foundations have been built and the ingenuity lies in developing concepts, information, appliances, devices over them..
• For most of human history, the practicals have preceded the theory. We discovered the fire and used it practically, before we understood the concepts of heat, temperature and heat-mass transfer. It's plausible that only in the last 2 centuries - with the backing of a sound knowledge base, we have flipped that approach to theory before practicals. Which makes the works in physics and science a lot more profound - Our current world has been shaped by an increasingly small set of individuals who were motivated to find out the inner trappings of how things worked - even though they already worked. If we were to 'dramatically' extrapolate that capability to a sufficient set of humans - maybe figuring out the complete universe and creating a new one isn't really out of bounds! And here's where another realization dawns - The Pioneers will always be a small no. - otherwise there wouldn't be any pioneers, would there ?
• The most complex concepts began with the most simple experiments. To evaluate the speed of light - Galileo proposed that two men with lanterns be stationed at the crests of a plateau and that the lanterns be raised at the same time to figure out how long the light took to reach the other side. (It didn't quite work, but the point remains..).In order to prove that the energy of a moving particle is not just mass*velocity (mv), but mv(square), Williem Gravesande let weights of a known mass plummet onto a clay floor. He noted that a mass going down with twice the speed sank 4 times deeper - square of the velocity. First principles in the truest sense of the word..
• In an evaluation system - what should be considered more valuable ? Coming up with a core concept or realizing it's implication in a practical application ? It's clear that the   application  precludes the  concept, but it is equally true that the concept is devoid of meaning without it's application for the better or worse of humanity..
• Lastly, where are our own  medieval Indian theoritical physicists and scientists ? That's what I intend to pursue sometime soon...