David Orrell is an applied mathematician and popular author. In early 2012, he completed an honorary visiting research fellowship at the Oxford University Smith School of Enterprise and the Environment.
"Orrell swings from the ancient preoccupation with musical harmony
and numerical ratios to Renaissance nature studies, the mechanistic
approach and the physical sciences of today. Imperfect as it is,
‘messy’ science, he argues, has a novel beauty of its
own."—Nature
*Nature*
"Fascinating . . . Orrell is an engaging and witty writer, adept at
explaining often complicated theories in clear language . . . he
argues persuasively that scientists need to let go of outmoded
aesthetic notions and embrace complexity."--Ian Critchley, The
Sunday Times
*The Sunday Times*
"Truth or Beauty gives a well-written, historically informed
argument that science has gone off the rails....The question Orrell
is addressing is an important and topical one."—Peter Woit, author
of Not Even Wrong: The Failure of String Theory and the Search for
Unity in Physical Law
*Peter Woit*
"A graceful and insightful history of the Pythagorean impulse to
model the world in mathematical terms. Orrell analyses Western
scientific culture's quest for order and links it to an essentially
religious conception of beauty."—Margaret Wertheim, author
of Pythagoras Trousers and Physics on the Fringe
*Margaret Wertheim*
“If science is the search for truth, we’d better understand what is
this truth that we seek. As David Orrell pointedly argues in this
well-written and accessible book, modern science runs the danger of
being blinded by an overarching aesthetic prejudice—traceable back
to Ancient Greece—that truth is necessarily wedded to beauty. Quite
the opposite, the more we learn about the natural world, the more
we are forced to accept a different kind of aesthetic based on the
imperfect and the asymmetric, and no less beautiful for
it.”—Marcelo Gleiser, author of A Tear at the Edge of Creation,
Appleton Prof. of Natural Philosophy, Dartmouth College
*Marcelo Gleiser*
"A lively and engaging work....The range of topics Orrell brings to
bear is impressive, and I always wanted to keep turning the
pages.”—Robert Smith, University of Alberta
*Robert Smith*
Shortlisted for the Canadian Science Writers' Association
Outstanding Adult Book Awards.
*Canadian Science Writers' Association*
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