Quote Originally Posted by Sasaki Kojiro View Post
1) What are the basic science advances that have changed our view of the big questions, and which questions?
Advances in measuring time, through advances in physics, have lead us to redefine length in terms of time (and speed of light) as opposed to being a "distinct" type of domain. That is we do not define speed in terms of distance over delta in time, but we define length in terms of a constant speed (of light) times a particular delta of time! So how tall are you is now officially defined in terms of how long would it take light in a vacuum to travel from top to toes?

Advances in physics in general have had striking implications for our day to day lives, including the questions "what are we made of?" and "where do we come from?"

2) What are some psychology studies that really show us things we couldn't have known otherwise on the important topics? Treating the abnormal, understanding sensation/perception, and medical therapeutical stuff is a different category.
Herd mentality type things. Mass psychology is key to designing safe buildings and vessels, to building user friendly and desirable products, or effective marketing (people don't like going back for seconds so you make more by selling larger portions up front, for instance). Also it turns out that people are terrible with quantities: one, two, three, more, many is roughly what the average Joe can deal with. Questions like "which is bigger: 10^6 or 2^19?" are very hard to do correctly.

3) Same as 2, but for the neuroscience, brain imaging type studies
How the brain works, of course; and by extension how we might aid people with e.g. Alzheimer's to remain mentally able for as long as possible and correctly diagnosing brain damage. Additionally study of the brain also has application in information science, AI, and CS (algorithms, neural networks, distributed systems). Understanding our brain's response to audio and visual input can help us design places which are more "friendly"/"soothing" on the nerves.