A Beautiful Question: Finding Nature’s Deep Design by Frank Wilczek – review

A Nobel prizewinner’s account of ‘the grandest achievement of human thought and striving’

Leading scientists often talk about science in ways that are patently unscientific. In his new book, the Nobel prizewinning American theoretical physicist Frank Wilczek asks: “Is the world a work of art?” Such a question is surely impossible to consider in scientific terms, using only statements that could be proved to be wrong. Any answer to the question is certain to be merely a matter of opinion.

Compared with other branches of science, theoretical physics has produced more than its share of scientific aesthetes, including Albert Einstein and Paul Dirac, who both had the rare experience of producing theories commonly described as beautiful, akin to great works of art. Perhaps it was partly for this reason that these two great scientists took as their lodestar the ill-defined concept of beauty.

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