![]() But to what extent is nature symmetrical, and is it a right criteria to expect from nature ? And our love for symmetries shouldn’t come as a surprise, after all, we ourselves are roughly symmetric in appearance. And this order is seen everywhere around us, from the large scale structures of spiral galaxies to the tiniest ice crystals and lattices and beyond into the subatomic world of particle physics and the Standard Model. Patterns, sequences and structures that exhibit order. But when it comes to science and in particular physics, beauty is what is symmetrical. But what exactly did he mean by mathematical beauty ? Beauty in itself is such a vague and personal term, what you would see as beautiful might repel me, and what I see beautiful can be your worse nightmare. “Physical laws should have mathematical beauty”, wrote Dirac on the blackboard on one lecture day. Physics might be intimidating to many, but to a lot of physicists, it is a search for beauty, elegance, and symmetry. I have written this short essay as part of my seminar talk on “Philosophical Foundations of Physical Practice”, that took place in the Summer semester 2019 at the University of Cologne/ Theoretical Physics Institute. A review of the book “Lost in Math” by Sabine Hossenfelder. ![]()
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