Art and Science

WHEN I was asked to present a short talk last week at the Ateneo Art Gallery with a topic on art and science, a lot of friends and colleagues were excited, and at the same time intrigued, by the idea of a physicist talking to a predominantly artist audience. This stems from the notion that there is a tight separation between the two disciplines—something that is assumed by many but is always disproved in practice.

I have heard a comment in a similar vein from one colleague from the Humanities. She pointed out in a forum that as scientists deconstruct the world by looking at its constituent molecules, atoms and the interactions between them, one fails to see the beauty in all of these—as if the scientist stops to appreciate beauty, and art for that matter, once he or she goes into “scientist mode.”