A Beautiful Question: Finding Nature's Deep Design

This is a rumination on beauty in the world. Nobel Laureate Frank Wilczek who is one of the most acclaimed theoretical physicists of his times brings us a chronicle of what beauty in science means. He focuses mainly on physics but does not neglect other sciences. The book is thoughtfully written and is beautifully illustrated with images from art, science and history. It reveals a mind that is as comfortable probing the deep mysteries of the cosmos as it is pondering the everyday objects of our world.Wilczek's approach is roughly chronological and one of his goals is to reveal the seamless unification of beauty in many different contexts. For instance he starts with an account of Pythagoras's theorem which pointed to a crucial connection between numbers and geometric figures. But Pythagoras also discovered simple and pleasing relationships between musical frequencies and the length of various string instruments. Remarkably, these relationships also mirror some of the relationships found in the wavelike nature of subatomic particles. Thus beauty in sound is connected to beauty at the microscopic level. Similarly Wilczek dwells on Goethe's intriguing ruminations on color. While some of these ruminations were scientifically flawed, Wilczek explores how they connect to our modern understanding of color based on the physics and biology of vision.It is when Wilczek starts talking about beauty in physics that he is really in his element. How does one define beauty in science in general and physics in particular? As we all know, beauty is in the eye of the beholder, but Wilczek convincingly provides some criteria that have guided physicists' search for this elusive but still familiar concept through the ages. One very important criterion is symmetry, and Wilczek tells us how assumptions of symmetry in equations and the behavior of subatomic particles underlie almost every concept of modern physics, from relativity to the Higgs boson. The second criterion is economy: many of the most profound equations of physics can fit on a napkin. The third is unification which, as pointed out before, leads to pleasing similarities between the mundane (musical sound, color) and the deep (cosmology, quantum mechanics) as well as between many branches of physics itself. In fact Wilczek's account demonstrates why the mundane is actually deeper than we think. Stunning examples of unification in physics include Maxwell's marriage of electricity with magnetism and Einstein's marriage of space with time.The later parts of the book which talk about concepts like the standard model of particle physics, gauge symmetry, Noether's theorem and quantum electrodynamics can get a bit hairy, but even if you are not a physicist you can still appreciate how these concepts embody the core concepts of beauty that Wilczek mentions. Things get a bit trickier when Wilczek starts talking about complex systems which cannot be pithily described with simple equations. These systems are more amenable to models than fundamental laws, and the challenges of defining beauty in such cases is illustrated by a collaboration Wilczek had with a fellow scientist in which a model that they came up with had so many moving parts that ultimately it was hard to see where exactly one could search for beauty or elegance in the construction. This discussion tantalizingly hints at the existence of so-called emergent systems like the weather, the stock market and consciousness which are not reducible to the sum of their individual parts. I would have appreciated a more detailed discussion of beauty in the context of these systems since science is likely going to focus more on them in the upcoming years.Nevertheless, this is a fine meld of ruminations on beauty across science, art, music and many other aspects of the human and natural world. Wilczek is a clear guide on this journey, and although he may not answer all our questions on beauty, he certainly makes us question and think, which should be the hallmark of a good teacher. Almost two hundred years ago John Keats said, "Beauty is truth, truth is beauty." Wilczek shows us how Keats's utterance is largely true.

The book “A Beautiful Question: Finding Nature’s Deep Design”, by Nobel Prize Frank Wilczek, is a beautiful book, beautifully well written.But I would like to point to several things that I find no so right. In the first place I very much doubt that there is design in nature, and that if there would be, it should be Nature’s. In the second place, I would have appreciated a bit less hybris, in the sense that the author would have not insisted in that the last theories of physics are surely correct. From the history of science we learn that every author has maintained the same belief, only to be corrected by new researchers..The first part of the book is a really good description of how physics evolved from the beautiful wrong ideas of the greeks to the wonderful Maxwell’s equations.But the second part of the book is an exposition of the author’s beliefs, with scarce proof that they are correct. It can be maintained that the proof of these ideas can be found in his original papers and those of his colleagues, but reading these, I still maintain my doubts about their correctness.It can be maintained that the author’s ideas in physics have been confirmed by experiments. But the experiments needed to confirm these ideas cannot be ones designed (now the word is used correctly) for that confirmation, and carried by only one laboratory in the world, the CERN.Additionally, there are wild speculations and the author assumes without proof the idea of the Big Bang, a fact that is no scientific, because it has not repeated in the last 20 billion of years, and a a thing that can not be subjected to repeated experimental analysis.On the whole, a book worth reading, with the above caveats.

This is an essay on quantum physics, and it is brilliant. This could be surprising since the author is one of the key contributors to the field and earned a Nobel Prize in Physics. Frequently, it is difficult to put those concepts in terms that can be understood without a PhD focused on the mathematics.He makes no effort to explain the mathematics in detail, but instead explains the history of the thinking and the motivation that led to the where we are today beginning with Plato and tracing the developments of key thinkers through the centuries.Looking back through the chapters, I am surprised at how much I learned when even grasping 10% of the new material on the first reading would be a significant accomplishment. This is definitely one to read, and then re-read after a chance to digest the material, repeat regularly. There are many excellent links to references and it is one that prompts side diversions to Wikipedia.

Thoroughly enjoyed reading this during my holidays. Be aware that it is fairly erudite in terms of ideas and their connections - especially once it gets into the modern era! But, as a treatise on the incredible complexities of physics and the inescapable conclusion that there is active design in it all, it is well crafted and conceived - as you would expect from a Nobel Prize winner.

A book that makes scientific ideas understandable for the non-specialist. Clear with excellent illustrations. Above all demonstrates the beauty of the world and the beauty of the underlying science.

The goal of this book to emphasise the role of symmetry in physical law and why equation of physics are also beautiful.

This book nearly but not quite succeeds as a primer on the great concepts underlying contemporary physics. I lost track during the last quarter of the book but up till then it built some firm foundations for the difficult ideas at the end.

expecting something technical, but the book is more philosophical than technical and not easy to follow.