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Paul Dirac,
sometimes called 'the first truly modern theoretical physicist', was
obsessed by mathematical beauty.
He believed that our fundamental understanding of the universe advanced by theories of successively greater aesthetical appeal, an idea he enshrined in his principle of mathematical beauty, which he regarded as being 'like a religion'. In this talk, I look at the early origins of Dirac's obsession with beauty, and the progress he made in turning it into a useful concept in physics. I shall also examine the singular personality of 'the strangest man', as Bohr called him. |