The Language of Symmetry was written by an interdisciplinary group of specialists from the arts, humanities, and sciences at Oxford University. It explores the idea that a basic form of symmetry is that between order and chaos, which finds expression in different ways in different fields.
‘The Language of Symmetry takes the reader on a fascinating interdisciplinary tour of the various different ways in which both classical symmetry and the order-chaos dichotomy are understood to apply in hugely diverse contexts… The book makes it abundantly clear, and in an engaging manner, that a synergy and even an interdependency between order and chaos underlies many aspects of the Universe.’ Peter L Read, Emeritus Professor of Physics, Oxford University
‘This is, without doubt, a stimulating and challenging book. It presents novel (even outrageous) concepts and produces evidence to support them. It challenges some of our mostly deeply embedded notions of how nature works at all levels… A brave attempt to elevate the ideas of order, disorder, and stochasticity to the level that they deserve. This is a book to be read and re-read slowly and to be thought about deeply.’ Ken Peach, Emeritus Professor of Physics, Oxford University
'Finding that there is a fundamental symmetry between order and disorder that can run through all our explanations is like discovering a clarification that was always waiting there to be revealed.’ BigThink, 'A Surprise New Theory of Everything'
‘A remarkable book that releases an intellectual depth charge. It will go bang but there will need to be time and exposure to know what submarines it hits and what flotsam and jetsam float to the surface as a result… There is an almost comic degree to which a tiny book review can’t convey what has been achieved here.’ Oxford Alumni Journal QUAD
Review of Chapter 6 - 'The Interdependence of Order and Disorder: How complexity arises in the living and the inanimate universe':
Attempts to unify the quantum model and classical mechanics into a single unified framework have been largely unsuccessful, but in Denis Noble’s essay The Interdependence of Order and Disorder,' perhaps biology has managed to reconcile a form of quantum mechanics with Newtonian pre-determinism; figuring out a way to convert the stochastic and unpredictable behaviour at a single molecule level into a smooth, reliable and predictable macroscopic response.' Anant Parekh FRS, Professor of Physiology, Oxford University
Video: 'The Language of Symmetry' (The British Museum, 14'51")
'Once we start using symmetry as a tool, all sorts of insights are possible. It has the potential to revolutionise our understanding of the World and mankind's place in it. But the real beauty of this idea lies in its simplicity. Although capable of explaining highly complex phenomena, it is elegant, harmonious and whole; and we don’t have to look through a microscope or a telescope in order to see it for it's here, all around us, influencing our everyday lives...'
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