But the beauty of Einstein's equations, for example, is just as real to anyone who's experienced it as the beauty of music. We've learned in the 20th century that the equations that work have inner harmony.
Interpretation
Einstein's equations possess a beauty akin to music through their inherent harmony.
In this quote, Edward Witten draws a parallel between the aesthetic appeal of scientific equations and music, suggesting that those who deeply understand scientific concepts can appreciate their beauty just as one appreciates the beauty of art. This highlights a profound connection between science and creativity, indicating that there is an intrinsic harmony in mathematical truths that resonates with the same emotional profundity found in musical compositions.
In practice
During a lecture on physics, this quote can be used to illustrate the artistic side of scientific inquiry.
Quantum mechanics brought an unexpected fuzziness into physics because of quantum uncertainty, the Heisenberg uncertainty principle. String theory does so again because a point particle is replaced by a string, which is more spread out.
I wouldn't have thought that a wrong theory should lead us to understand better the ordinary quantum field theories or to have new insights about the quantum states of black holes.
You have that one basic string, but it can vibrate in many ways. But we're trying to get a lot of particles because experimental physicists have discovered a lot of particles.
Regardless of any deviations, it was clear I was supposed to end up in math and physics.
Even before string theory, especially as physics developed in the 20th century, it turned out that the equations that really work in describing nature with the most generality and the greatest simplicity are very elegant and subtle.
It's an exaggeration to say that I came up with M-theory.
Once humankind has been some place and found it_x000D_ entrancing, they always go back, I think in the history of the_x000D_ human race, the moon has been the first place we've gone to and said,_x000D_ 'OK, we don't need to go back there again.
From the point of view of basic physics, the most interesting phenomena are, of course, in the new places, the places where the rules do not work - not the places where they do work! That is the way in which we discover new rules.
You stop planetary exploration, those people who do that extraordinary work are going to have to go do something else.
The scientist is not a person who gives the right answers, he is one who asks the right questions.
Some solutions are relatively simple and would provide economic benefits: implementing measures to conserve energy, putting a price on carbon through taxes and cap-and-trade and shifting from fossil fuels to clean and renewable energy sources.
Quantum physics thus reveals a basic oneness of the universe.
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