“IT IS MORE IMPORTANT to have beauty in one’s equations than to have them fit experiment,” wrote the English theoretical physicist Paul Dirac—the beauty being a sign that the theory was on the right track and that the discrepancy with experiment was likely “due to minor features . . . that will get cleared up with further developments.” Beauty is the beacon; truth is what it marks. Einstein, according to the physicist Eugene Wigner, thought along the same lines: “The only physical theories which we are willing to accept are the beautiful ones.” You needn’t look far to find similar sentiments
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