An Artist's Eye, A Scientist's Mind and A New Perspective / by Zachary Copfer

There is an old cliché that goes something like this, “magic is nothing more than science we do not yet understand”. Although there is a great deal of truth in this statement, there is also an unfortunate and inaccurate sentiment that precipitates from this line of thought. The idea that once the science of a phenomenon is understood its magic then fades into the past where it can never again serve as a source of wonderment. This belief paints science as a machine out to strip the natural world of her shroud of mystery. For hundreds of years poets have said that every time science reveals an explanation for one of the universe’s secrets it pilfers a source of beauty and inspiration from the artists and poets of the world. As alluring as this theory might seem, especially to artists and poets, it is ultimately false. Every question answered by science progenies a plethora of new questions, every mystery explained spawns new deeper and more intricate mysteries. Scientists are all too often aware of the aesthetics in their theories but unable to translate them into a form that can be digested by those in other fields. There is, however, a solution to exposing and expressing the natural beauty of science. The answer is to approach science from the perspective of an artist. A working scientist is bound by many regulations and must follow certain protocols in order to ensure the authenticity of his work. An artist, on the other hand, is free from these confines. This freedom allows artists greater maneuverability within the theories and thus provides them with a free reign approach to the study and expression of the splendor rooted in science. Great beauty and poetry reside within the theories woven by scientists and it is only through the unification of art and science that these treasures can be fully explored and made accessible to the world at large.