The Beauty of Science & the Precision of Art
I was watching Encounters at the End of the World, and this physicist was talking about what exactly a nutrino is, and he started getting into this whole metaphysicial discussion of how it exists in a different realm yet is passing through us constantly.
And it got me thinking… it’s fascinating how scientists, physicists, and mathematicians, who work entirely with facts, numbers, precise measurements, and exact data without any room for error, are always looking for the inexplicable in their fields. Mathematicians love crunching numbers but what really interests them is the beauty of mathematical systems and equations; the progression of the Fibonacci sequence or the seemingly random and unidentifiable pattern of pi. And especially the simple formula of the Golden Ratio which, in theory, can be applied to every beautiful tangible object:
The zoologists, ecologists, and biologists who study living things day in and day out but are always searching for an answer to that ethereal mystery that constantly comes up in every area of existence: the organization of ant colonies or the resemblance between flowers and bees. The physicists who spend years to acquire a degree just so they can quantify some infinitesimal subatomic particle, which actually works more like an organic cell than a cold lego block.
And then you have the flipside with all these artists who basically make a living off of capturing and conjuring beauty, which defies logic, yet so many of them are concerned with the technicalities and exactitudes of art and breaking it down into some reliable formula. Photographers and cinematographers keep their eyes open for the stunning image but in the process they have to measure light and adjust with numbered aperture settings and shutter speeds. Painters have to display some important quality of life yet they’re limited to a specific canvas size which they’re already cutting up and diagramming into quarters and equidistant compartments.
The best example of this dichotomy has got to be Leonardo da Vinci.
A world renowned artist who was also a scientist, mathematician, botanist, inventor, anatomist, et al. He was constantly throwing in triangular themes in his work and his compositions are surgically, nevermind just mathematically, precise. The Mona Lisa broken down as such (note the Golden Ratio):
There will always be that push and pull between the concrete tangibile world and the unseen spiritual realm. C. S. Lewis mentions in The Screwtape Letters that humans are amphibians- half spirit, half animal. God made us as physical beings that inhabit the earth, but He injected us with a part of Himself that keeps us glued to the heavenlies. If water boils, it will evaporate and if it cools down, it will freeze; but how one thing can be all three at once is still such a beautiful mystery.
