“Beauty is truth” - What’s beauty got to do with science?

Associate Professor and Chair, Department of Sociology The Catholic University of America 11 Introduction Introduction Despite the idea that the modern world is allegedly divided into “two cultures”, in which the sciences and the humanities stare at each other across an intellectual chasm in mutual incomprehension, scientists are very interested in and highly attuned to the idea of beauty. [...] “It is… the search for Despite the idea that the this special beauty, the sense of modern world is allegedly the harmony of the world, that divided into “two cultures”, makes us select the facts best suited in which the sciences to contribute to this harmony,” wrote the French mathematician and the humanities stare and theoretical physicist, Henri at each other across an Poincaré.1 “If nature lead. [...] The study focused on physicists and biologists from four countries – India, Italy, the UK, and the US – and examined a wide range of topics, including meaning and identity in work, scientists’ assessments of their workplace cultures, and – the focus of this essay – the significance and the role of aesthetics in scientific work. [...] “If you compare a presentation produced by somebody who’s inexperienced or not a very good presenter in terms of their slides, compared to somebody who is a good presenter, not just in terms of the basic design things but also in terms of the choice of the photos or pictures they use or the choice of example…”35 In short, beauty appears to be important and arguably intrinsic to the goals and proce. [...] 48 What is beauty in science? “I encounter beauty in science when you’re at the point where you take the data and analyse it, and then Interviewees commonly you see the patterns coming.”13 claimed that simplicity was The beauty of science rested in a fundamental, guiding, discerning the ordered connections heuristic principle within and patterns within the rich, physics.