Print version record.

Includes bibliographical references (pages 321-343) and index.

Part I: Symmetery and design -- In search of beauty -- Symmetry and simplicity -- The far side of the mirror -- Part II: Einstein's legacy -- Marriage of time and space -- A happy thought -- Symmetry dictates design -- Part III: Into the limelight -- Where the action is not -- The lady and the tyger -- Learning to read the great book -- Symmetry triumphs -- Part IV: To know his thoughts -- The eightfold path in the forest of the night -- The revenge of art -- The ultimate design problem -- Unity of forces -- The rist of hubris -- The mind of the creator.

An engaging exploration of beauty in physics, with a foreword by Nobel Prize–winning physicist Roger Penrose The concept of symmetry has widespread manifestations and many diverse applications—from architecture to mathematics to science. Yet, as twentieth-century physics has revealed, symmetry has a special, central role in nature, one that is occasionally and enigmatically violated. Fearful Symmetry brings the incredible discoveries of the juxtaposition of symmetry and asymmetry in contemporary physics within everyone's grasp. A. Zee, a distinguished physicist and skillful expositor, tells the exciting story of how contemporary theoretical physicists are following Einstein in their search for the beauty and simplicity of Nature. Animated by a sense of reverence and whimsy, Fearful Symmetry describes the majestic sweep and accomplishments of twentieth-century physics—one of the greatest chapters in the intellectual history of humankind.

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