[NetBehaviour] symmetry - science, art and nature

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neil, if you go,

could you write just a little bit of what you heard there?

(pleasepleaseplease)




neil jenkins escribió:
> http://downloads.bbc.co.uk/rmhttp/downloadtrial/radio4/inourtime/inourtime_20070419-0900_40_st.mp3 
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>
> -->
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> SYMMETRY
>
> Today we will be discussing symmetry, from the most perfect forms in 
> nature, like the snowflake and the butterfly, to our perceptions of 
> beauty in the human face. There's symmetry too in most of the laws 
> that govern our physical world.
>
> The Greek philosopher Aristotle described symmetry as one of the 
> greatest forms of beauty to be found in the mathematical sciences, 
> while the French poet Paul Valery went further, declaring; “The 
> universe is built on a plan, the profound symmetry of which is somehow 
> present in the inner structure of our intellect”.
>
> The story of symmetry tracks an extraordinary shift from its role as 
> an aesthetic model - found in the tiles in the Alhambra and Bach's 
> compositions - to becoming a key tool to understanding how the 
> physical world works. It provides a major breakthrough in mathematics 
> with the development of group theory in the 19th century. And it is 
> the unexpected breakdown of symmetry at sub-atomic level that is so 
> tantalising for contemporary quantum physicists.
>
> So why is symmetry so prevalent and appealing in both art and nature? 
> How does symmetry enable us to grapple with monstrous numbers? And how 
> might symmetry contribute to the elusive Theory of Everything?
>
> Contributors
>
> Fay Dowker, Reader in Theoretical Physics at Imperial College, London
>
> Marcus du Sautoy, Professor of Mathematics at the University of Oxford
>
> Ian Stewart, Professor of Mathematics at the University of Warwick
>
>
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