It Must Be Beautiful

Science is hugely influential in our culture. Equations lie at the heart of many of the most extraordinarily successful scientific theories. Yet, for many of us, these equations have been a closed book. Their difficult form has often acted as an obstacle to any understanding of their significance and they have even come to embody the mystery and terror of modern science. It Must Be Beautiful redresses this by presenting the great equations of modern science for non-mathematical readers, thereby attempting to convey some of their power and beauty.

It Must Be Beautiful brings together some world-leading scientists with great historians and science writers, each with a gift for explanation. The authors each unpack an equation so that it becomes understandable, and we are entertained and enlightened by a knowledge of how it was arrived at, what it can do and its importance in contemporary culture.

Contributors include: Roger Penrose on Einstein's equations of general relativity; John Maynard Smith on the role of the equation in biology; Arthur Miller on the wave equation of Erwin Schrodinger; and a general essay by Steven Weinberg.