Physics is the fundamental science underlying the investigation of all natural phenomena. It has provided much of the theory and many of the experimental techniques that are widely used in present-day science and technology. The impressive list of developments that have come directly from physics includes: solid-state electronics; lasers and masers; the nuclear magnetic resonance techniques used in biology, chemistry, and medicine; X-ray crystallography; electron microscopy; and superconductivity.

Physics has also provided a stimulus to philosophy and to the general development of the ideas that seek to explain our relation to the rest of the universe.