Truth or Beauty

"Orrell swings from the ancient preoccupation with musical harmony and numerical ratios to Renaissance nature studies, the mechanistic approach and the physical sciences of today. Imperfect as it is, ‘messy’ science, he argues, has a novel beauty of its own."—Nature

-- Nature
"Fascinating . . . Orrell is an engaging and witty writer, adept at explaining often complicated theories in clear language . . . he argues persuasively that scientists need to let go of outmoded aesthetic notions and embrace complexity."--Ian Critchley, The Sunday Times -- Ian Critchley * The Sunday Times *
"Truth or Beauty gives a well-written, historically informed argument that science has gone off the rails....The question Orrell is addressing is an important and topical one."—Peter Woit, author of Not Even Wrong: The Failure of String Theory and the Search for Unity in Physical Law -- Peter Woit
"A graceful and insightful history of the Pythagorean impulse to model the world in mathematical terms. Orrell analyses Western scientific culture's quest for order and links it to an essentially religious conception of beauty."—Margaret Wertheim, author of Pythagoras Trousers and Physics on the Fringe -- Margaret Wertheim

“If science is the search for truth, we’d better understand what is this truth that we seek. As David Orrell pointedly argues in this well-written and accessible book, modern science runs the danger of being blinded by an overarching aesthetic prejudice—traceable back to Ancient Greece—that truth is necessarily wedded to beauty. Quite the opposite, the more we learn about the natural world, the more we are forced to accept a different kind of aesthetic based on the imperfect and the asymmetric, and no less beautiful for it.”—Marcelo Gleiser, author of A Tear at the Edge of Creation, Appleton Prof. of Natural Philosophy, Dartmouth College

 

-- Marcelo Gleiser
"A lively and engaging work....The range of topics Orrell brings to bear is impressive, and I always wanted to keep turning the pages.”—Robert Smith, University of Alberta -- Robert Smith
Shortlisted for the Canadian Science Writers' Association Outstanding Adult Book Awards. -- General Audience Award * Canadian Science Writers' Associati