here<\/a>\u00a0without subscribing\u00a0\u2014 features images of quite astounding\u00a0beauty.<\/p>\n\u00a0<\/p>\n
They\u2019re pictures of bone and cervical cancer cells, barnacle appendages, the hind legs of an insect called a \u201cplant hopper,\u201d retinal cells, fossil marine plankton, plant vasculature, a crab spider, a developing Japanese eel, a rat\u2019s brain, skin cancer, and the tongue of a house cricket.<\/p>\n
\u00a0<\/p>\n
Does the intricacy and even beauty of even such items as these\u00a0tell us anything about the nature of the universe?<\/p>\n
\u00a0<\/p>\n
In a perhaps related vein: \u00a0Paul Dirac, an important early researcher in quantum mechanics\u00a0(and a 1933 Nobel laureate in physics), was once asked the secret of his success as a theoretical physicist and applied mathematician. \u00a0He replied that, whenever he found himself\u00a0confronted with multiple potential explanations for some phenomenon or other, he always pursued the hypothesis\u00a0that seemed to him most beautiful, most elegant.<\/p>\n
\u00a0<\/p>\n
***<\/strong><\/span><\/p>\n\u00a0<\/p>\n
\u201cFor the scientist who has lived by his faith in the power of reason, the story ends like a bad dream. He has scaled the mountains of ignorance; he is about to conquer the highest peak; as he pulls himself over the final rock, he is greeted by a band of theologians who have been sitting there for centuries.\u201d<\/strong> \u00a0(Robert Jastrow [d. 2006], agnostic physicist, astronomer, and cosmologist, commenting on modern cosmological discoveries at the conclusion of his book God and the Astronomers<\/em>\u00a0<\/em>[New York: W.W. Norton, 1978])<\/span><\/p>\n\u00a0<\/p>\n
***<\/span><\/strong><\/p>\n\u00a0<\/p>\n
\u201cAs we survey all the evidence, the thought insistently arises that some supernatural agency \u2014 or, rather, Agency \u2014 must be involved. Is it possible that suddenly, without intending to, we have stumbled upon scientific proof of the existence of a Supreme Being? Was it God who stepped in and so providentially crafted the cosmos for our benefit?\u201d<\/strong> \u00a0(George Greenstein, Sidney Dillon Professor of Astronomy at Amherst College, in his book\u00a0The Symbiotic Universe <\/i>[New York: William Morrow, 1988],\u00a027.)<\/span><\/p>\n\u00a0<\/p>\n
***<\/span><\/strong><\/p>\n\u00a0<\/p>\n
\u201cI would say the universe has a purpose. It\u2019s not there just somehow by chance.\u201d<\/strong>\u00a0 (Roger Penrose, Rouse Ball Professor of Mathematics Emeritus, Mathematical Institute, University of Oxford; mathematical physicist and philosopher of science; co-winner, with Stephen Hawking, of the 1988 Wolf Prize in physics)<\/span><\/p>\n\u00a0<\/p>\n
Posted from Paris, France<\/p>\n
\u00a0<\/p>\n
\u00a0<\/p>\n<\/body><\/html>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"
\u00a0 \u00a0 A\u00a0remarkable photo essay\u00a0in the January 2015 issue of Scientific American, entitled \u201cLiving Large\u201d \u2014 you can see\u00a0the first paragraph or two, and the first image, online here\u00a0without subscribing\u00a0\u2014 features images of quite astounding\u00a0beauty. \u00a0 They\u2019re pictures of bone and cervical cancer cells, barnacle appendages, the hind legs of an insect called a \u201cplant […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1019,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[1],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-61283","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-uncategorized"],"yoast_head":"\n
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![From a series on \"Absolute Symmetry\" online](\"https:\/\/wp-media.patheos.com\/blogs\/sites\/186\/2016\/01\/800px-AbsoluteSymmetry03a.jpg\")
<\/a>