This reminds me of the story set in ~1900, when the gray-beard physicist tells his student not to study physics because all the big questions have been answered, and physics as a science will end in a few years.
In the same vein... There is also a book by Stephen Hawking called "Is the End in Sight for Theoretical Physics: An Inaugural Lecture" from 1980... http://www.amazon.com/End-Sight-Theoretical-Physics-Inaugura...