Murray Gell-Mann: Beauty and truth in physics

[Hagakure]

http://www.ted.com/talks/view/id/194

really enjoyed this talk. can learn a fair bit from it but it is also pretty entertaining.

[ThunderIdeal]

thats awesome, and the user comments further down the page are pretty interesting too, i liked (part of) this one:

Someone once said, "A good piece of music is when you don't know what's coming next, but when it does, you know it's the right thing."

So with any physical law. The beauty is only apparent after the event. The loose ends are tied up; it operates at extremes; it draws together earlier work; it allows solutions to practical problems; it demonstrates limits and/or its workings may be applicable in diverse areas.

Goedel, Newton, Heisenberg and many others all gave limits to the physical world but these are no less beautiful for that. Knowing where a road ends is as important as any other factor when planning a journey.

To this extent, a law will always be beautiful. However, as Gell-Mann said, it is not possible to create beauty and expect it to be a law.