Nuclear physicist: Robert August 
a.k.a.
Writer: August von Orth
Why Physics and Art?
Why choose a name like Physics and Art for this site? Aren’t the two things opposites? Perhaps it’s presumptuous to strive for a degree of skill in both. With formal training in physics, and a successful career built around it, the polite thing would be to stay in that box. But who likes boxes?
It’s sad that such a thing is considered unusual. Many have been successful at both; an excellent example is Catherine Asaro who lives in my area. And there was a time when it was positively normal; think of Leonardo da Vinci. Artist: painter, sculptor, architect, musician, and writer. Scientist: mathematician, engineer, inventor, anatomist, geologist, cartographer, and botanist. It would be wrong to think of him as a scientist who dabbled in art, or an artist who played around with science. He was definitively both. I’m willing to bet that if anyone ever asked him which he really was, that he’d have cocked his head to the side and wondered what the question even meant. Because in truth the two things are intimately related.
How?
Human faces that appear beautiful to most people have mathematical properties of symmetry and proportionality that are universal. Does the artist recognize this when choosing a model to paint or sculpt? Maybe not, but it is still the underlying property that drives the choice.
In physics, the holy grail is a unified theory that encompasses all the forces of nature. Physicists don’t expect this theory to be a clunky and convoluted series of formulas, they anticipate a single equation, elegant and simple, that describes everything. Why? Because such an equation is beautiful, in the same mathematical sense that defines the beauty of a human face. Just try and find a skilled physicist who thinks otherwise; you’ll fail.
Beauty drives both physics and art. If you find that hard to believe, then listen to Albert Einstein: “If I were not a physicist, I would probably be a musician. I often think in music. I live my daydreams in music. I see my life in terms of music.” In fact, it may be that a physicist without an artistic sensibility is doomed to mediocrity.
So why choose a name like Physics and Art for this site? Why choose anything else?
Physics and Art 
What a great way to explain your title and I totally agree!
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Oooo nice! And I’m happy to find a fellow scientist/creative as well! Because you’re right, many times people stay in their boxes, and don’t venture from one side to the other. I have, however, always loved both sides, the artistic and scientific, and while I am most definitely no physicist (although I WISH I could be – I dropped Calculus in high school to focus more on my Physics class which I was failing … I’m sadly not as mathematically inclined as I’d like, ha!), I do love the sciences. Pretty much all of them. And anyway, what in life gives you better story ideas than SCIENCE! What greater art is there but NATURE!
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It is so true about science and story ideas. Science allows a writer to create a completely unique, yet plausible, dilemma in which to place a character. It lets a writer look at what it means to be human from a fresh perspective.
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Hello, I just nominated you for the liebster award: https://englishmaninberlin.wordpress.com/2014/11/30/liebster-award/
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Thanks!
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I see no dichotomy between physics (even quantum level, superstring, or Higgs bosons) and art… they are both methods of trying to make sense of reality, such as it might be.
Kudos.
Cheers!
Al Bouchard
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Nice to meet a like-minded soul, Al.
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I need to to thank you for this excellent read!! I certainly loved every
bit of it. I have got you book-marked to check out new things you post…
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Asking questions are really fastidious thing if you are not understanding something entirely, except this post gives fastidious understanding even.
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Nice Blog, thanks for sharing this kind of information.
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They might grow as much as three feet tall.
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What’s up, I check your blogs daily. Your writing style is witty,
keep doing what you’re doing!
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Good stuff.
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I enjoy what you guys are usually up too. This type of clever work and exposure!
Keep up the wonderful works guys I’ve included you guys to blogroll.
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Yes, it’s hard to understand why these two realms are not more often seen as intimately related. Thanks for checking out my blog! I look forward to reading more of your thoughts.
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Thank you for following my blog. Cheers!
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Thanks for stepping outside the box and visiting my blog!
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And thank you for stopping by mine!
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I love your site description! I’m another scientist-writer though my specialty is biology (entomology) and I’m just starting out.
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I’d love to hear about your biology and writing endeavors! Being a biologist, I think you’ll enjoy The Last Butterfly when it comes out. https://physics-art.com/physics-and-art/test/811-2/
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Robert, thank you. I liked this issue a million-million ways. I think relating art and science is brilliant. As I did the concept of thinking like a musician. As I did the concept of finding a single, elegant formula for a GUT. Einstein certainly believed it exists. So do many others. Perhaps you’ll be the one to find it. Great – great post!
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Wonderful! I am an MS Candidate in Columbia University’s Narrative Medicine Program who believes in the inextricable connection between art, science AND social justice. I am also a sleep activist:) Delighted to meet a kindred spirit: http://sps.columbia.edu/narrative-medicine?utm_source=google&utm_medium=search&utm_campaign=NMED-M_google_search&gclid=Cj0KEQiAxeTFBRCGmIq_7rGt_r8BEiQANdPqUum7Cj1sti3fcRN5eaaZF_ytpSzEZz02gpvZu-fSxXcaAgsO8P8HAQ
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Nice to meet you, Kathleen. I wish you all the best with your studies; I visited the website and it sounds like a really interesting field of study.
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Listen to John Keats too: “A thing of beauty is a joy forever”. Whether it’s Vermeer’s Girl with a Pearl Earring or the Gibbs-Helmholtz equation, the same spirit of delight moves within. A pleasure to visit your place, and thank you for visiting mine.
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Without the arts, science would never have been born. You need imagination to understand the world.
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Imagination is the key. Albert Einstein said: “Imagination is more important than knowledge. For knowledge is limited, whereas imagination embraces the entire world, stimulating progress, giving birth to evolution.”
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Yes! He liked fairy tales, too.
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Congratulations on a highly appealing case for linking these two major components of life on Earth.
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Great article. I love that Einstein quote: “If I were not a physicist, I would probably be a musician. I often think in music. I live my daydreams in music. I see my life in terms of music.”
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A very nice statement. I reminded me of another intellectual who had more varied intrests as one should assume: Rosa Luxemburg. She wasn’t only the clever theoretician we remember today but a passionate gardener with the intense love for botany. Thank you very much for following.
All the best
Laureen
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Awesome work.Just wished to drop a comment and say i’m new your journal and adore what i’m reading.Thanks for the share
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Thanks for dropping in!
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