kNow-ledge

I was sitting on the science center lawn today, not thinking about anything - just enjoying the warmth of the sun (especially after the frigidity of my geos classroom) and the comfort of the grass, when I saw a feather on the ground next to me. I reached out and picked it up, and because I wasn't thinking of anything, I just looked at it. And looked.
And realized that I didn't know anything about feathers, and hardly anything about birds. Oh, sure, I can name some of them based on markings, I know the movement of the wings in flight (not merely up and down, but rather in a wave shape), I know what some of them eat, and where some of them live, and how some of them make nests... but this all suddenly seemed very trivial compared to the single feather I had in front of me that was so secretive in my hands. What holds the individual parts of the feather together? What happens when the feather gets shredded through use? What kind of bird did this feather belong to, and how did it lose it?
Lately I've been thinking about how the different fields of science blend together... and aren't really different at all, when you get down to basics. Probably everyone knows that little saying about how biology is just applied chemistry and chemistry is just applied physics, and physics is just applied math... I say 'just' like it's easy, heh.
Brief tangent! In Astronomy yesterday, my professor said (basically) the following: "In astro, we'll look at all the forces, so we'll learn all of physics - and since chemistry is just applied physics, you'll know all of chemistry - so basically, when you're done with Astronomy you'll be so well educated you'll be obnoxious."
hehe! I thought that was pretty good.
Anyway, back to what I was talking about - lately, I've been feeling like knowledge of any one thing is worthless without knowledge of the countless other things that, in some way, apply. I don't really mean worthless in the usual sense of the word... I think that all knowledge is 'worth' something, but it's like... like playing chess without knowing the rules. It can be fun, but ultimately, you'll never gain any 'worthwhile' understanding of the game. Maybe that's a weak analogy... maybe I don't really know what I'm trying to say. I just have this overwhelming feeling that I don't know anything - and that even if I study for the rest of my life, I will never know enough.
I was talking with Pat about whether or not knowledge is finite the other day, and I said that (first of all) it depends on your definition of knowledge... If you limit knowledge to pure universe-governing rules, then yes, I think that it's possible that knowledge is finite - but on such a scale that it is rendered infinite to us, like the universe itself. (On the other hand, if you broaden your definition of knowledge, then it becomes increasingly less infinite. Like... taking derivatives. Dude. This is like calculus. WHY??)
Is this making sense? I guess what I mean to say is that while knowledge of a specific branch of science is obviously valuable, if you want to apply it to the world (like I do) you need to know so so so much more, about so many different things. Which is good, I'm looking forward to that. It's just... a little awing. And intimidating. And startling, to realize this thing that has always been true, that I suppose I knew but never really understood until now - and I don't even really understand it completely yet, I guess, I just know that it's there. I'm losing track of this idea, if I haven't already. But I still have the feather... and my brain. We'll see if it comes back with any more clarity later.