[REBORN FROM THE ASHES][comment][12.31]

windandrain2004UID: 2597690

占楼

123runfordreamUID: 2697608

Judging from the scientists I know, including Eva and Ruth, and those whom I've read about, you can't pursue the laws of nature very long without bumping into beauty. "I don't know if it's the same beauty you see in the sunset," a friend tells me, "but it feels the same." This friend is a physicist, who has spent a long career deciphering what must be happening in the interior of stars. He recalls for me his thrill on grasping for the first time Dirac's equations describing quantum mechanics（量子力学）, or those of Einstein describing relativity. "They're so beautiful," he says, "you can see immediately they have to be true. Or at least on the way toward truth." I ask him what makes a theory beautiful, and he replies, "Simplicity, symmetry, elegance, and power."

Why nature should conform to theories we find beautiful is far from obvious. The most incomprehensible thing about the universe, as Einstein said, is that it's comprehensible. How unlikely, that a short-lived biped on a two-bit planet should be able to gauge(to measure precisely the size, dimensions, or other measurable quantity of) the speed of light, lay bare the structure of an atom, or calculate the gravitational tug(a strong pulling force) of a black hole. We're a long way from understanding everything, but we do understand a great deal about how nature behaves. Generation after generation, we puzzle out formulas, test them, and find, to an astonishing degree, that nature agrees. An architect draws designs on flimsy paper, and her buildings stand up through earthquakes. We launch a satellite into orbit(a circular path)
and use it to bounce messages from continent to continent. The machine on which I write these words embodies hundreds of insights into the workings of the material world, insights that are confirmed by every burst of letters on the screen, and I stare at that screen through lenses that obey the laws of optics first worked out in detail by Isaac Newton.

By discerning patterns in the universe, Newton believed, he was tracing the hand of God. Scientists in our day have largely abandoned the notion of a Creator as an unnecessary hypothesis, or at least an untestable one. While they share Newton's faith that the universe is ruled everywhere by a coherent set of rules, they cannot say, as scientists, how these particular rules came to govern things. You can do science without believing in a divine Legislator, but not without believing in laws.

I spent my teenage years scrambling up the mountain of mathematics. Midway up the slope, however, I staggered to a halt, gasping in the rarefied air, well before I reached the heights where the equations of Einstein and Dirac would have made sense. Nowadays I add, subtract, multiply, and do long division when no calculator is handy, and I can do algebra(代数) and geometry(几何学) and even trigonometry(三角学) in a pinch(=at a pinch:used to say that you could do something if necessary in a difficult or urgent situation), but that is about all that I've kept from the language of numbers. Still, I remember glimpsing patterns in mathematics that seemed as bold and beautiful as a skyful of stars.

I'm never more aware of the limitations of language than when I try to describe beauty. Language can create its own loveliness, of course, but it cannot deliver to us the radiance we apprehend in the world, any more than a photograph can capture the stunning swiftness of a hawk or the withering power of a supernova. Eva's wedding album holds only a faint glimmer of the wedding itself. All that pictures or words can do is gesture beyond themselves toward the fleeting glory that stirs our hearts. So I keep gesturing.

"All nature is meant to make us think of paradise," Thomas Merton observed. Because the Creation puts on a nonstop show, beauty is free and inexhaustible, but we need training in order to perceive more than the most obvious kinds. Even fifteen billion years or so after the Big Bang, echoes of that event still linger in the form of background radiation, only a few degrees above absolute zero. Just so, I believe, the experience of beauty is an echo of the order and power that permeate the universe. To measure background radiation, we need subtle instruments; to measure beauty, we need alert intelligence and our five keen senses.

Anyone with eyes can take delight in a face or a flower. You need training, however, to perceive the beauty in mathematics or physics or chess, in the architecture of a tree, the design of a bird's wing, or the shiver of breath through a flute. For most of human history, the training has come from elders who taught the young how to pay attention. By paying attention, we learn to savor all sorts of patterns, from quantum mechanics to patchwork quilts.

This predilection brings with it a clear evolutionary advantage, for the ability to recognize patterns helped our ancestors to select mates, find food, avoid predators. But the same advantage would apply to all species, and yet we alone compose symphonies and crossword puzzles, carve stone into statues, map time and space. Have we merely carried our animal need for shrewd perceptions to an absurd extreme? Or have we stumbled onto a deep congruence between the structure of our minds and the structure of the universe?

I am persuaded the latter is true. I am convinced there's more to beauty than biology, more than cultural convention. It flows around and through us in such abundance, and in such myriad forms, as to exceed by a wide margin any mere evolutionary need. Which is not to say that beauty has nothing to do with survival: I think it has everything to do with survival. Beauty feeds us from the same source that created us. It reminds us of the shaping power that reaches through the flower stem and through our own hands. It restores our faith in the generosity of nature. By giving us a taste of the kinship between our own small minds and the great Mind of the Cosmos, beauty reassures us that we are exactly and wonderfully made for life on this glorious planet, in this magnificent universe. I find in that affinity a profound source of meaning and hope. A universe so prodigal of beauty may actually need us to notice and respond, may need our sharp eyes and brimming hearts and teeming minds, in order to close the circuit of Creation

Paul Adrien Maurice Dirac, (August 8, 1902 – October 20, 1984) was a British theoretical physicist and a founder of the field of quantum physics.

Comment:
Wow, nice “beauty”!
After reading some of others’ comments about this essay, I thought all of us had been attracted by it. As what I had considered that beauty is just a feeling once you meet it at the first moment spreading all your whole body as you touch the electricity, refreshing you. what this article delivers to me is the same as what the author try to tell us the beauty of the nature. I do remember the landscape of a creek laying aside the village, the whole countryside held on my eyes as a wonderful picture, and the comfortable touching by the breeze. That’s the beauty I had ever been feeling. There are still plenty of beauty natures waiting for us. I bag people don’t screw this up. This is the only planet we can survive. Don’t make it a past we cant never go back.

qisaimanUID: 2703629

thrill 激动 颤抖
flimsy 薄的
divine 神赐的
rarefied air 纯洁的
glimpse 闪现
glimmer 微光，
fleet 掠过
gesticulate 打手势
perceive 领悟
stumble 偶然碰见
congruence 和谐
generosity 慷慨
prodigal 丰富的
brimming 饱满的 溢出的


the ultimate questions always keep us thinking, though in myriad forms. this passage express the beauty found when exploring the law of nature. so far the theory we have found even astonishes ourselves. however this beauty is hard to appreciate. to perceive the beauty of comas, we need training and attention , even solitude. while, when you find it, you can not let go. the author develop a deep love toward the nature. compared with carrying our animal need to an absurd extreme , we should devote to the deep congruence, which shape our mind and faith to respect the nature and integrate into the Mind of Cosmo.

prettywraithUID: 197049

Comments (2009-12-31):

It is an interesting passage. With philosophical thinking, author shows us the beauty in one scientist's eyes. If you are free and have time to read it peacefully, you would find the beauty of this essay. Recently, I am too busy to sew this delicious food. But I still feel author's happiness when he was seeking for answer, and his sensitive interior world.

There is long story about philosophy problems debate, so does beauty. In past time, myriad people, such as Socrates, Kant, and Hegel, try to explain what is beauty. Without obscure words and complicated theory, author only express his own feeling about the beauty. In his passage, instead of tracing the God hand, he seeks for beauty through trace between human souls and universe. As a brilliant arts, human, who can think and feel beauty, is created by nature. Human have few knowledge about themselves as universe. But these do not drawback us to enjoy beauty in life. In author's passage, beauty is like another magical gift given by the cosmos or God.

tequilawineUID: 2702008

Bump
into 撞上 偶然碰见 conform to符合 遵照
lay bare 暴露 揭发 展开 puzzle out 推测出 flimsy 不结实的 易损坏的 hypothesis假设 前提 scramble爬行 攀登 rarefied air 稀薄空气 in a pinch必要时 如果有必要 all that 到那种程度
take delight in乐于 kinship血缘关系 prodigal浪费的 铺张的

1 " I ask him what makes a theory beautiful, and he replies, "Simplicity, symmetry, elegance, and power."
2 The most incomprehensible thing about the universe, as Einstein said, is that it's comprehensible.
3 The machine on which I write these words embodies hundreds of insights into the workings of the material world, insights that are confirmed by every burst of letters on the screen, and I stare at that screen through lenses that obey the laws of optics first worked out in detail by Isaac Newton.
4 Language can create its own loveliness, of course, but it cannot deliver to us the radiance we apprehend in the world, any more than a photograph can capture the stunning swiftness of a hawk or the withering power of a supernova.
5 Just so, I believe, the experience of beauty is an echo of the order and power that permeate the universe.
6 It flows around and through us in such abundance, and in such myriad forms, as to exceed by a wide margin any mere evolutionary need.
short-lived biped: here refers to human being
two-bit planet: here refers to the earth



comment:
It seems so elegant, ineffable, and power that the marvel cosmos and its divine coherent set of rules shapes the paradise for us short-live biped. Hardly could I imagine the beauty lie between the science and pristine nature, so that I was astounded by the prose, written by Scott Russell Sanders, when I glimpse it. It approachs to me by its innovation in the science discovery.
With the solid opinion that anything concerning science is much more boring, I have to admit I seldom dabble that sort of articles. But combining the beauty with it, seeming totally unfamiliar for me, indeed intrigues my curiosity to button down the whole essay.
Living up to my expectation, I attain what I don’t know before that we should perceive the beauty that permeate in every corner of our world and savor it thankfully as the universe gives it to us so prodigal. Sometimes people living their life in hasty, consigning to oblivion that we are all on an irreversible journey from birth to death. We ought to slow down our pace to get what we can see on our journey.
Inevitably, only if we could see truly inner beauty of our planet, we can really take our life to a orbicular ending.

miki7catUID: 2533330

Comment

The beauty of nature always makes us being astonished, either the natural landscape or the laws of nature we find. We could not help admiring:"Wow! Wonderful!" I love the last paragraph that expresses the affinity between beauty and us, especially the profound goal: to close the circuit of Creation. For the Creation puts on a nonstop show, beauty is free and inexhaustible, but we need training in order to perceive more than the most obvious kinds, in other words, the beautiful theories that nature should conform to. The metaphor in the forth paragraph is very appropriate, which described the process of studying mathematics referring to scrambling up a mountain. The higher we reach, the more beauty we get. Not only sciences such as mathematics, physics, biology, but our usage of language should also be trained well in order to record the beauty we perceive.


好词好句的标注

Judging from the scientists I know, including Eva and Ruth, and those whom I've read about, you can't pursue the laws of nature very long without bumping into【If you bump into something or someone, you accidentally hit them while you are moving.】 beauty. "I don't know if it's the same beauty you see in the sunset," a friend tells me, "but it feels the same." This friend is a physicist, who has spent a long career deciphering what must be happening in the interior of stars. He recalls for me his thrill on grasping for the first time Dirac's equations describing quantum mechanics, or those of Einstein describing relativity. "They're so beautiful," he says, "you can see immediately they have to be true. Or at least on the way toward truth." I ask him what makes a theory beautiful, and he replies, "Simplicity, symmetry, elegance, and power."

Why nature should conform to【If something conforms to something such as a law or someone's wishes, it is of the required type or quality.】 theories we find beautiful is far from obvious. The most incomprehensible thing about the universe, as Einstein said, is that it's comprehensible. How unlikely, that a short-lived biped on a two-bit【You use two-bit to describe someone or something that you have no respect for or that you think is inferior. (AM INFORMAL)】 planet should be able to gauge the speed of light, lay bare the structure of an atom, or calculate the gravitational tug of a black hole. We're a long way from understanding everything, but we do understand a great deal about how nature behaves. Generation after generation, we puzzle out formulas, test them, and find, to an astonishing degree, that nature agrees. An architect draws designs on flimsy paper, and her buildings stand up through earthquakes. We launch a satellite into orbit and use it to bounce messages from continent to continent. The machine on which I write these words embodies hundreds of insights into the workings of the material world, insights that are confirmed by every burst of letters on the screen, and I stare at that screen through lenses that obey the laws of optics first worked out in detail by Isaac Newton.

By discerning patterns in the universe, Newton believed, he was tracing the hand of God. Scientists in our day have largely abandoned the notion of a Creator as an unnecessary hypothesis, or at least an untestable one. While they share Newton's faith that the universe is ruled everywhere by a coherent set of rules, they cannot say, as scientists, how these particular rules came to govern things. You can do science without believing in a divine Legislator, but not without believing in laws.

I spent my teenage years scrambling up the mountain of mathematics. Midway up the slope, however, I staggered to a halt, gasping in the rarefied air, well before I reached the heights where the equations of Einstein and Dirac would have made sense. Nowadays I add, subtract, multiply, and do long division when no calculator is handy, and I can do algebra and geometry and even trigonometry in a pinch【If you say that something is possible at a pinch, or in American English if you say that something is possible in a pinch, you mean that it would be possible if it was necessary, but it might not be very comfortable or convenient.】, but that is about all that I've kept from the language of numbers. Still, I remember glimpsing patterns in mathematics that seemed as bold and beautiful as a skyful of stars.

rodgoodUID: 2619326

Useful words and expressions:

bumping into无意中遇到

spent a long career deciphering研究，解码

thrill on 对……的兴奋

grasp 弄懂，理解

Simplicity, symmetry, elegance, and power

Biped两足动物（的）

gauge the speed of light

lay bare揭发，暴露，公开

puzzle out苦苦思索而弄清楚 formulas

to an astonishing degree

launch a satellite into orbit

bounce messages from continent to continent

no calculator is handy

in a pinch在紧要关头

a skyful of stars

radiance光辉

stunning极好的

stirs our hearts煽动我们心中的热情

shiver of breath through a flute

predilection偏爱

absurd荒谬的

myriad无数（的），种种（的）

remind sb of sth

kinship亲属关系，血缘关系

on this glorious planet, in this magnificent universe

The most incomprehensible thing about the universe, as Einstein said, is that it's comprehensible.

I stare at that screen through lenses that obey the laws of optics first worked out in detail by Isaac Newton.

By discerning patterns in the universe, Newton believed, he was tracing the hand of God. 鉴别，领悟

The universe is ruled everywhere by a coherent set of rules.

Midway up the slope, however, I staggered to a halt, gasping in the rarefied air, well before I reached the heights where the equations of Einstein and Dirac would have made sense.

I'm never more aware of the limitations of language than when I try to describe beauty.

Echoes of that event still linger in the form of background radiation, only a few degrees above absolute zero.

To measure background radiation, we need subtle instruments; to measure beauty, we need alert intelligence and our five keen senses.

Have we stumbled onto a deep congruence between the structure of our minds and the structure of the universe?


It restores our faith in the generosity of nature.

I find in that affinity密切关系，类同 a profound source of meaning and hope. A universe so prodigal of beauty may actually need us to notice and respond, may need our sharp eyes and brimming hearts and teeming minds, in order to close the circuit of Creation.


My comments

Like the title of it, the article is so beautiful. I admire writer's use of verbs in it, considering what should I do and how long it will cost for me to get to this level of governing English.

It reminds me of that "all problems of science could be summed up to problems of philosophy", which may be the reason why Doctor Degree is called Philosophy Degree, or Ph.D. As the writer says, the universe is full of beauty and needs our attention with alert intelligence and keen senses. However, in our increasingly fast daily life, people are so anxious to pursue reputation and profit that they always forget to take a stop to feel beauty and felicity along the way. One philosopher once said what life lacks is not beauty but eyes to detect beauty. We are artists of our own life. Only when we feel it, enjoy it, can we make it better.

番茄斗斗UID: 2720914

结构-好词-生词-表达-难句

Beauty(节选）

By Scott Russell Sanders

Judging from the scientists I know, including Eva and Ruth, and thosewhom I've read about, you can't pursue the laws of nature very longwithout bumping into beauty. "I don't know if it's the same beauty yousee in the sunset," a friend tells me, "but it feels the same." Thisfriend is a physicist, who has spent a long career deciphering whatmust be happening in the interior of stars. He recalls for me histhrill on grasping for the first time Dirac's equations describingquantum mechanics, or those of Einstein describing relativity. "They'reso beautiful," he says, "you can see immediately they have to be true.Or at least on the way toward truth." I ask him what makes a theorybeautiful, and he replies, "Simplicity, symmetry, elegance, and power."

Why nature should conform to theories we find beautiful is far fromobvious. The most incomprehensible thing about the universe, asEinstein said, is that it's comprehensible. How unlikely, that ashort-lived biped（二足动物） on a two-bit planet should be able to gauge the speedof light, lay bare the structure of an atom, or calculate thegravitational tug of a black hole. We're a long way from understandingeverything, but we do understand a great deal about how nature behaves.Generation after generation, we puzzle out formulas, test them, andfind, to an astonishing degree, that nature agrees. An architect drawsdesigns on flimsy paper, and her buildings stand up throughearthquakes. We launch a satellite into orbit and use it to bouncemessages from continent to continent. The machine on which I writethese words embodies hundreds of insights into the workings of thematerial world, insights that are confirmed by every burst of letterson the screen, and I stare at that screen through lenses that obey thelaws of optics first worked out in detail by Isaac Newton.

By discerning patterns in the universe, Newton believed, he was tracingthe hand of God. Scientists in our day have largely abandoned thenotion of a Creator as an unnecessary hypothesis, or at least anuntestable one. While they share Newton's faith that the universe isruled everywhere by a coherent set of rules, they cannot say, asscientists, how these particular rules came to govern things. You cando science without believing in a divine Legislator, but not withoutbelieving in laws.

I spent my teenage years scrambling up the mountain of mathematics.Midway up the slope, however, I staggered to a halt, gasping in therarefied air, well before I reached the heights where the equations ofEinstein and Dirac would have made sense. Nowadays I add, subtract,multiply, and do long division when no calculator is handy, and I cando algebra and geometry and even trigonometry in a pinch, but that isabout all that I've kept from the language of numbers. Still, Iremember glimpsing patterns in mathematics that seemed as bold andbeautiful as a skyful of stars.

I'm never more aware of the limitations of language than when I try todescribe beauty. Language can create its own loveliness, of course, butit cannot deliver to us the radiance we apprehend in the world, anymore than a photograph can capture the stunning swiftness of a hawk orthe withering power of a supernova. Eva's wedding album holds only afaint glimmer of the wedding itself. All that pictures or words can dois gesture beyond themselves toward the fleeting glory that stirs ourhearts. So I keep gesturing.

"All nature is meant to make us think of paradise," Thomas Mertonobserved. Because the Creation puts on a nonstop show, beauty is freeand inexhaustible, but we need training in order to perceive more thanthe most obvious kinds. Even fifteen billion years or so after the BigBang, echoes of that event still linger in the form of backgroundradiation, only a few degrees above absolute zero. Just so, I believe,the experience of beauty is an echo of the order and power thatpermeate the universe. To measure background radiation, we need subtleinstruments; to measure beauty, we need alert intelligence and our fivekeen senses.

Anyone with eyes can take delight in a face or a flower. You needtraining, however, to perceive the beauty in mathematics or physics orchess, in the architecture of a tree, the design of a bird's wing, orthe shiver of breath through a flute. For most of human history, thetraining has come from elders who taught the young how to payattention. By paying attention, we learn to savor all sorts ofpatterns, from quantum mechanics to patchwork quilts.

This predilection brings with it a clear evolutionary advantage, forthe ability to recognize patterns helped our ancestors to select mates,find food, avoid predators. But the same advantage would apply to allspecies, and yet we alone compose symphonies and crossword puzzles,carve stone into statues, map time and space. Have we merely carriedour animal need for shrewd perceptions to an absurd extreme? Or have westumbled onto a deep congruence between the structure of our minds andthe structure of the universe?

I am persuaded the latter is true. I am convinced there's more tobeauty than biology, more than cultural convention. It flows around andthrough us in such abundance, and in such myriad forms, as to exceed bya wide margin any mere evolutionary need. Which is not to say thatbeauty has nothing to do with survival: I think it has everything to dowith survival. Beauty feeds us from the same source that created us. Itreminds us of the shaping power that reaches through the flower stemand through our own hands. It restores our faith in the generosity ofnature. By giving us a taste of the kinship between our own small mindsand the great Mind of the Cosmos, beauty reassures us that we areexactly and wonderfully made for life on this glorious planet, in thismagnificent universe. I find in that affinity a profound source ofmeaning and hope. A universe so prodigal of beauty may actually need usto notice and respond, may need our sharp eyes and brimming hearts andteeming minds, in order to close the circuit of Creation

Comment:
Elegant,I can only utter words like this to express my idea toward the article above.Rather than pinpoint the words and sentence, i decide to recite it in a whole.

Even amazed about the math,number to me was no more than a tedious symble. Comparing to fine arts, which is vividly perceived form life and rather beyond life,math shared nothing related to beauty. Later, I recognized that the attraction of math comes from its simplicity, symmetry, elegance, and power. With world filled with complication and comphrehension, number can easily fit itself to the rule and reveal the inner connection of nature. As Newton put it,"tracing to the hand of God“ is indeed a job of a scientists'.

fancywwUID: 2583671

useful words and expressions: ……is far from obvious：比not obvious 好 scrambling up the mountain of mathematics:比climbe好 Midway up the slope, however, I staggered to a halt, gasping in the rarefied air, well before I reached the heights where the equations of Einstein and Dirac would have made sense. radiance: 光芒 predilection:an established preference for something synonyms PREDILECTION, PREPOSSESSION, PREJUDICE, affinity:sympathy marked by community of interest  : KINSHIP A universe so prodigal of beauty may actually need us to notice and respond, may need our sharp eyes and brimming hearts and teeming minds, in order to close the circuit of Creation How unlikely, that a short-lived biped on a two-bit planet should be able to gauge the speed of light, lay bare the structure of an atom, or calculate the gravitational tug of a black hole. My comment: The article reminds me of three things. The first thing is an Issue statement:"Anyone can make things bigger and more complex. What requires real effort and courage is to move in the opposite direction--in other words, to make things as simple as possible".(Issue 25)  I quite agree with the issue's statement, and I think this article expresses the same idea. Just as the author says at first, a beautiful theory should be "Simplicity, symmetry, elegance, and power."  Science may be the field that mostly requires things to be concise and simple. This is the pursuit of beauty. Great thinkers and scientists should be able to draw clear and simple conclusion through out a number of findings and facts. For example, before Einstein's famous mass-energy equivalence, various formulas appeared trying to explain and show the relationship of mass and energy. However, none of them is as simple but also precise and elegant as Einstein's theory. The second thing is Angels & Demons, a novel by Dan Brown. The novel uses the idea of a historical conflict between science and religion. However, in the novel the author actually wants to discuss the relationship between science and religion. Just as this article writes:"By discerning patterns in the universe, Newton believed, he was tracing the hand of God". In the fiction, Leonardo Vetra was a famous physicist studying the antimatters, but he is also a priest and a pious believer in God. He believes that science and religion are actually not antagonistic; but in fact the God has already created the world perfectly and waited for human beings to discover it. Through the characters, Dan Brown conveys his belief that "Faith is universal. Our specific methods for understanding it are arbitrary. Some of us pray to Jesus, some us go to Mecca, some of us study subatomic particles. In the end we are all just searching for truth, that which is greater than ourselves. " So like the article suggests, scientists need the notion of Creation to be their faith in searching for truth. And without this belief, they can hardly appreciate the beauty of the process and the result of their work. The third thing is a TV series The Big Bang Theory. In the sitcom, four genius scientists in 20S are crazy about science. Their high IQ and their enthusiasm in science make them a little "abnormal" in common sense and social skills. However, to them science is their goddess. And they can see the charm and beauty in their scientific quest. In daily life, their pursuit for perfectness, especially Sheldon, seems silly but reasonable, because we can imagine all the persistence and strictness derive from alert intelligence and keen senses in their scientific research. Although the sitcom is an irony of their geekiness, I personally like their personality. I'm not a science students. I believe that the pursuit of scientific results and the belief in the notion of Creation by God does not conflict. The God of science is not one of protons, masses, and particle charges. Their God is actually like the religious one, have the power of inspiration, the power to reach the hearts of man and to remind him he is accountable for a significant beauty. Despite of the different approaches, in the end we should all be aware of the same thing: that life is beautiful; that we are grateful for that created us.

dingyi0311UID: 2627919

Shiver 颤动
Chess国际象棋
lay bare揭露
Predilection偏向，嗜好
bumping into冲撞
Dirac's equation狄拉克方程
two-bit简单
stagger犹豫
patchwork quilt拼布床单
thrill
激动thriller 恐怖片
kinship亲属关系
prodigal奢侈
shrewd精明的
flimsy脆弱的
stumble蹒跚
stumbled onto碰巧发现
he machine on which I write these words embodies hundreds of insights into the workings of the material world, insights that are confirmed by every burst of letters on the screen, and I stare at that screen through lenses that obey the laws of optics first worked out in detail by Isaac Newton.

By discerning patterns in the universe, Newton believed, he was tracing the hand of God. Scientists in our day have largely abandoned the notion of a Creator as an unnecessary hypothesis, or at least an untestable one. While they share Newton's faith that the universe is ruled everywhere by a coherent set of rules, they cannot say, as scientists, how these particular rules came to govern things. You can do science without believing in a divine Legislator, but not without believing in laws.


But the same advantage would apply to all species, and yet we alone compose symphonies and crossword puzzles, carve stone into statues, map time and space

Beauty feeds us from the same source that created us

A universe so prodigal of beauty may actually need us to notice and respond, may need our sharp eyes and brimming hearts and teeming minds, in order to close the circuit of Creation

Gauge the speed of light, lay bare the structure of an atom, or calculate the gravitational tug of a black hole

My comments
This article itself is beautiful and prose like, it praise the beauty of the universe and try to explain why it is of such beauty. It gives us two explanations: one is that our perceptions are evolved so sophisticate that make us to understand more of the universe, another is that our mind structure is beauty as the same the structure of our universe. The author tends to approve the later one. And believe that A universe so prodigal of beauty may actually need us to notice and respond, may need our sharp eyes and brimming hearts and teeming minds, in order to close the circuit of Creation

aladdin.ivyUID: 2596664

comments

While reading this beautiful article named Beauty, I begin to realize that if you try love something or someone you must be able to perceive its or his/her beauty. The author noted that anyone with eyes can take delight in a face or a flower, however, to perceive the beauty in some abstract things, such as a subject like mathematics or physics as well as the architecture of tree, we need trainings. Why does it happens is easy to find, since we people tend to find the beauty of things that have an outstanding appearance, things without which tends to ignored by us. In fact, everything existing in the planet has its value to exist, as it is said by Auguste Rodin, a famous French artist, “It is not a lack of beauty of life, it is our lack of discovery”. And if we are willing to set our mind to explore the beauty of every object, including which looks not that beauty, we would find that our grandma’s hands with winkles is a kind of beauty, also mum’s chatters, and children’s crying. Because all these are come from a sense of love, which is the most incomprehensible word in the earth and has an endless power to melt the hardest ice in everyone’s heart.

P.S As this is a selection essay, I want to find and read the rest.

jinziqiUID: 2387034

I love this article so much so I decide to paste the whole paragraphs. The word is beautiful and the content is more attractive.

Beauty(节选）
By Scott Russell Sanders

Judging from the scientists I know, including Eva and Ruth, and those whom I've read about, you can't pursue the laws of nature very long without bumping碰撞 into beauty. "I don't know if it's the same beauty you see in the sunset," a friend tells me, "but it feels the same." This friend is a physicist, who has spent a long career deciphering what must be happening in the interior of stars. He recalls for me his thrill令人兴奋的精力 on grasping for the first time Dirac's equations describing quantum mechanics, or those of Einstein describing relativity. "They're so beautiful," he says, "you can see immediately they have to be true. Or at least on the way toward truth." I ask him what makes a theory beautiful, and he replies, "Simplicity, symmetry, elegance, and power."

Why nature should conform to theories we find beautiful is far from obvious. The most incomprehensible thing about the universe, as Einstein said, is that it's comprehensible. How unlikely, that a short-lived biped on a two-bit planet should be able to gauge the speed of light, lay bare the structure of an atom, or calculate the gravitational tug of a black hole. We're a long way from understanding everything, but we do understand a great deal about how nature behaves. Generation after generation, we puzzle out formulas, test them, and find, to an astonishing degree, that nature agrees. An architect draws designs on flimsy轻而薄且不牢固的 paper, and her buildings stand up through earthquakes. We launch a satellite into orbit and use it to bounce messages from continent to continent. The machine on which I write these words embodies hundreds of insights into the workings of the material world, insights that are confirmed by every burst of letters on the screen, and I stare at that screen through lenses that obey the laws of optics first worked out in detail by Isaac Newton.

By discerning patterns in the universe, Newton believed, he was tracing the hand of God. Scientists in our day have largely abandoned the notion of a Creator as an unnecessary hypothesis, or at least an untestable one. While they share Newton's faith that the universe is ruled everywhere by a coherent set of rules, they cannot say, as scientists, how these particular rules came to govern things. You can do science without believing in a divine上帝的 Legislator, but not without believing in laws.

I spent my teenage years scrambling攀登 up the mountain of mathematics. Midway up the slope, however, I staggered蹒跚 to a halt, gasping in the rarefied air, well before I reached the heights where the equations of Einstein and Dirac would have made sense. Nowadays I add, subtract, multiply, and do long division when no calculator is handy, and I can do algebra and geometry and even trigonometry in a pinch, but that is about all that I've kept from the language of numbers. Still, I remember glimpsing patterns in mathematics that seemed as bold and beautiful as a skyful of stars.

I'm never more aware of the limitations of language than when I try to describe beauty. Language can create its own loveliness, of course, but it cannot deliver to us the radiance荣光满面 we apprehend in the world, any more than a photograph can capture the stunning极有魅力的 swiftness迅速 of a hawk or the withering power of a supernova. Eva's wedding album holds only a faint衰弱的 glimmer of the wedding itself. All that pictures or words can do is gesture beyond themselves toward the fleeting glory that stirs our hearts. So I keep gesturing.

"All nature is meant to make us think of paradise," Thomas Merton observed. Because the Creation puts on a nonstop show, beauty is free and inexhaustible, but we need training in order to perceive more than the most obvious kinds. Even fifteen billion years or so after the Big Bang, echoes of that event still linger逗留 in the form of background radiation, only a few degrees above absolute zero. Just so, I believe, the experience of beauty is an echo of the order and power that permeate the universe. To measure background radiation, we need subtle instruments; to measure beauty, we need alert intelligence and our five keen senses.

Anyone with eyes can take delight in a face or a flower. You need training, however, to perceive the beauty in mathematics or physics or chess, in the architecture of a tree, the design of a bird's wing, or the shiver of breath through a flute. For most of human history, the training has come from elders who taught the young how to pay attention. By paying attention, we learn to savor all sorts of patterns, from quantum mechanics to patchwork quilts.

This predilection偏好 brings with it a clear evolutionary advantage, for the ability to recognize patterns helped our ancestors to select mates, find food, avoid predators. But the same advantage would apply to all species, and yet we alone compose symphonies and crossword puzzles, carve stone into statues, map time and space. Have we merely carried our animal need for shrewd精明的 perceptions to an absurd extreme? Or have we stumbled onto a deep congruence between the structure of our minds and the structure of the universe?

I am persuaded the latter is true. I am convinced there's more to beauty than biology, more than cultural convention. It flows around and through us in such abundance, and in such myriad forms, as to exceed by a wide margin any mere evolutionary need. Which is not to say that beauty has nothing to do with survival: I think it has everything to do with survival. Beauty feeds us from the same source that created us. It reminds us of the shaping power that reaches through the flower stem and through our own hands. It restores our faith in the generosity慷慨大方 of nature. By giving us a taste of the kinship between our own small minds and the great Mind of the Cosmos宇宙, beauty reassures使安心 us that we are exactly and wonderfully made for life on this glorious planet, in this magnificent universe. I find in that affinity密切关系 a profound source of meaning and hope. A universe so prodigal挥霍的 of beauty may actually need us to notice and respond, may need our sharp eyes and brimming盈满 hearts and teeming充满 minds, in order to close the circuit of Creation.

My comment

I think these words the author typed on his machine and I read on my screen are the most beautiful words I have ever seen, not only the precise choose of words, but also the main point about beauty. Beauty is at every corner of all over the world and waiting to be discovered by our eyes and hearts. Those physical phenomena that the author described are also beautiful which proves that the physics is from our lives, but more than lives. Sometimes, the limitation of the language and the photographs prevent us from expressing beauty, however, I reckon that our eyes is the best photographer which can take every beautiful scenes you have seen with our minds into memory forever. So, beauty is permanent in our heart.

海王泪UID: 2673613

My Sum-Up
1. What is and what makes the beauty of Theory?
2. We do understand a great deal about how nature behaves though we are a long way from understanding everything.
3. The universe is ruled everywhere by a coherent set of rules.
4. Mathematics is beautiful.
5. The limitations of language happen when we describe beauty.
6. We need training in order to perceive beauty more than the most obvious kinds.
7. Examples for beauty and training like paying attention can help perceive beauty.
8. Enjoying seeking truth as beauty brings with it a clear evolutionary advantage
9. A universe so prodigal of beauty may actually need us to notice and respond in order to close the circuit of Creation.
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Sentences and Phrases
Useful Expressions
You can't pursue the laws of nature very long without bumping into beauty.
Bump into=come across=encounter
This friend is a physicist, who has spent a long career deciphering what must be happening in the interior of stars.
Deciphering=exploring
How unlikely, that a short-lived biped on a two-bit planet should be able to gauge the speed of light, lay bare the structure of an atom, or calculate the gravitational tug of a black hole.
Lay bare=unveil=reveal=disclose
Generation after generation, we puzzle out formulas, test them, and find, to an astonishing degree, that nature agrees.
Generation after generation
Puzzle out
To an astonishing degree
We're a long way from understanding everything
A long way from=far from
I'm never more aware of the limitations of language than when I try to describe beauty.
Be never more aware of…than when…= only realize… when
Just so, I believe, the experience of beauty is an echo of the order and power that permeate the universe.
The experience of … is an echo of … that…
Permeate=flow through=spreadthrough

Materials
Ideas
【What makes a theory beautiful】
"They're so beautiful," he says, "you can see immediately they have to be true, or at least on the way toward truth." I ask him what makes a theory beautiful, and he replies, "Simplicity, symmetry, elegance, and power."
【Limitations of Language】
I'm never more aware of the limitations of language than when I try to describe beauty. Language can create its own loveliness, of course, but it cannot deliver to us the radiance we apprehend in the world, any more than a photograph can capture the stunning swiftness of a hawk or the withering power of a supernova.

【Why We Seeking Truth- The Behavior is Evolutionary Advantage】

This predilection brings with it a clear evolutionary advantage, for the ability to recognize patterns helped our ancestors to select mates, find food, avoid predators. (Three Main Behavior of Animals: Propagate, food, avoid danger)
Examples
【The Analogy of Seeking Truth】
By discerning patterns in the universe, Newton believed, he was tracing the hand of God. (The universe is ruled everywhere by a coherent set of rules, though they cannot say, as scientists, how these particular rules came to govern things.)
I spent my teenage years scrambling up the mountain of mathematics. Midway up the slope, however, I staggered to a halt, gasping in the rarefied air, well before I reached the heights where the equations of Einstein and Dirac would have made sense.
Scramble up=climb up
【Examples for Human Power to Modifying Nature due to theory】
An architect draws designs on flimsy paper, and her buildings stand up through earthquakes.
We launch a satellite into orbit and use it to bounce messages from continent to continent.
【Examples for different extrinsic and intrinsic beauty】(Why we need training)
Anyone with eyes can take delight in a face or a flower. You need training, however, to perceive the beauty in mathematics or physics or chess, in the architecture of a tree, the design of a bird's wing, or the shiver of breath through a flute.
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My Comment
This stunning essay shows us the beauty in science and why we have predilection in seeking patterns.

Being good at inducing patterns, rather than only conditioned reflex, human race have got better chance of living than do other species in our world. We are proud of our intelligence, because we benefit a lot from this evolutional advantage. Gradually, human fall in love with knowledge, and we feel ourselves as born from truth.

Beyond folk, there is a group of people who extremely indulge the emotion for logos. Scientists, from economists to physicist, and from linguists to anthropologists, all believe in laws of universe behind the superficial chaos. In Newton’s words, we are tracing the hand of God. If one day human could touch the amazing grace, the final truth, what else do we need? Nothing. Absolutely nothing because we become the Creator. But that’s a long journey, and it seems like a dream impossible.

Still, we are on the way toward truth, and many scientists suffer from setbacks again and again. But what we obtain are much more than pain. Along this alluring journey, knowledge is accumulating and in particular time we find we make significant progress. As what the author says in the article, “Generation after generation, we puzzle out formulas, test them, and find, to an astonishing degree, that nature agrees.”

Besides what author says, I would like to give an additional reason for beauty of truth. That is, knowledge is seamless. Knowledge can spread. Given enough time, all human will benefit from the achievement of only a small group of scientists. Once you accept it, it creates value. Moreover, knowledge depends little on objective material; in other words, it is free and inexhaustible. Except for our universe, what else can we find as limitless as knowledge?

My emotional essay was written in limited time without reasoning line….Sorry…

敛寒影UID: 2613052

bumping into beauty

grasping for the first time Dirac's equations describing quantum mechanics量子力学

I ask him what makes a theory beautiful, and he replies, "Simplicity, symmetry对称，均匀, elegance, and power.

conform to遵循

lay bare暴露，揭发，展开

puzzle out苦苦思索

gasping the rarefied纯净的，稀薄的 air

in a pinch在紧要关头，必要时

deliver to转交，交付，传达

swiftness迅速，快

fleeting短暂的，飞逝的 glory that stirs our hearts

take delight in乐于

to an extreme极度地，非常地

by a wide margin广泛的回旋余地

The most incomprehensible thing about the universe, as Einstein said, is that it's comprehensible.

Generation after generation, we puzzle out formulas, test them, and find, to an astonishing degree, that nature agrees.

You can do science without believing in a divine Legislator, but not without believing in laws.

Still, I remember glimpsing patterns in mathematics that seemed as bold and beautiful as a skyful of stars.

I'm never more aware of the limitations of language than when I try to describe beauty.

"All nature is meant to make us think of paradise," Thomas Merton observed. Because the Creation puts on a nonstop show, beauty is free and inexhaustible, but we need training in order to perceive more than the most obvious kinds.

Just so, I believe, the experience of beauty is an echo of the order and power that permeate the universe. To measure background radiation, we need subtle instruments; to measure beauty, we need alert intelligence and our five keen senses.


Have we merely carried our animal need for shrewd perceptions to an absurd extreme? Or have we stumbled onto a deep congruence between the structure of our minds and the structure of the universe?

Beauty feeds us from the same source that created us.

A universe so prodigal of beauty may actually need us to notice and respond, may need our sharp eyes and brimming hearts and teeming minds, in order to close the circuit of Creation

Comment:

What a beautiful aticle!Citing what the article says,I'm never more aware of the limitations of language than when I try to describe beauty,that is the feeling I merely have.

This article discribes the beautiful things from the eyes of scientists,which different from the things our common perpson simply assents,contrarily,a simple, symmetrical, elegant theory,and the obvious phenomenons in our daily life but cantain coherent set of rules,also maybe the access of scranbling mountain of academic.This wonderful article aggrandize my comprehension on beauty and I recognized there are mass of beauty waiting us to discover and explore,and the only thing we need to do is cultivating and alerting intelligence and our five keen senses.

I have little the same feeling as the author described during the study on academic.I have never detected such a beautiful and mysterious world through the sight of optical microscope and scanning electron microscope.That was my first time seen the structure of bacterial flagella,various figures including beautiful girls,pears and cats vividly shown under the optical aparatus,and as long as you fully exert imagination,you can find more funny profile.So does the same as the configurition of antennas of insects,which is alluring and complicated integral.These beatiful founds arouse us searching for the mystery in the universe,then the study never boring but interesting.

Holding a attitude of discovering beauty,we could reap a lot,no matter what we are doing.Sharp eyes and brimming hearts and teeming minds make our life more bewutiful.

emteddybearUID: 2699606

thrill:兴奋
elegance：优美
gauge：测量，估量
gravitational：万有引力的
hypothesis：假说 apprehend：领会，理解
paradise：天堂，乐园
perceive：感知
savor：尝试
subtle：微妙的
shiver：战栗，发抖
predilection：偏爱




good sentence
1.you can see immediately they have to be true, or at least on the way toward truth.
2.Generation after generation, we puzzle out formulas, test them, and find, to an astonishing degree, that nature agrees.
3.I spent my teenage years scrambling up the mountain of mathematics.
4.I'm never more aware of the limitations of language than when I try to describe beauty.
5.the experience of beauty is an echo of the order and power that permeate the universe.
6.It restores our faith in the generosity of nature.
7.A universe so prodigal of beauty may actually need us to notice and respond, may need our sharp eyes and brimming hearts and teeming minds, in order to close the circuit of Creation


MY COMMENTS:
To be frank, I’m confused having finished this report, and I only get some main idea about it. It is true that everything in the cosmos is beautiful. In other word, there is not lack of beauty, but lack of discovery. When the author said that the equation is so beautiful, charming, I think some students, whose major is the liberal of arts, can’t understand it. Why such so dull equations will be beauty? What kind of equations can be divided into beauty? I think this question is rather to be thought than expressed. Only our science students can understand the beauty of the speed of light being 3.0*e8. It needs training. In my eyes universe is quite beautiful but not simple. So when people use some simple, concise and symmetry theories to tell us how our universe running, why not we call them beauties? Thanks to the wisdom of our ancestors. They are so great!