There remains a poetic element in modern physics. We do not write in poetry; much of the writing of physicists barely reaches the level of prose. But we seek beauty in our theories, and use aesthetic judgments as a guide in our research. Some of us think that this works because we have been trained by centuries of success and failure in physics research to anticipate certain aspects of the laws of nature, and through this experience we have come to feel that these features of nature’s laws are beautiful.17 But we do not take the beauty of a theory as convincing evidence of its truth.
