Beauty

This collection challenges conventional ideas of beauty by exploring unconventional approaches to the topic in the arts, sciences and mathematics.

This collection of essays from eight distinguished scholars challenges conventional approaches to the subject of beauty through an interdisciplinary approach that forges connections between the arts, sciences and mathematics. Each essay is entertaining, accessible and thought-provoking and is accompanied by images illustrating beauty in practice.Beauty challenges conventional approaches to the subject through an interdisciplinary approach that forges connections between the arts, sciences and mathematics. Classical, conventional aspects of beauty are addressed in subtle, unexpected ways: symmetry in mathematics, attraction in the animal world and beauty in the cosmos. This collection arises from the Darwin College Lecture Series of 2011 and includes essays from eight distinguished scholars, all of whom are held in esteem not only for their research but also for their ability to communicate their subject to popular audiences. Each essay is entertaining, accessible and thought-provoking and is accompanied by images illustrating beauty in practice. Contributors include the artist José Hernández, Nobel Prize Laureate Frank Wilczek, Lord May of Oxford and Jeanne Altmann (Eugene Higgins Professor of Ecology and Evolutionary Biology at Princeton University).