Lost in Math

How Beauty Leads Physics Astray

By: Sabine Hossenfelder

Narrated by: Laura Jennings

A contrarian argues that modern physicists' obsession with beauty has given us wonderful math but bad science

Whether pondering black holes or predicting discoveries at CERN, physicists believe the best theories are beautiful, natural, and elegant, and this standard separates popular theories from disposable ones. This is why, Sabine Hossenfelder argues, we have not seen a major breakthrough in the foundations of physics for more than four decades. The belief in beauty has become so dogmatic that it now conflicts with scientific objectivity: observation has been unable to confirm mindboggling theories, like supersymmetry or grand unification, invented by physicists based on aesthetic criteria. Worse, these "too good to not be true" theories are actually untestable and they have left the field in a cul-de-sac. To escape, physicists must rethink their methods. Only by embracing reality as it is can science discover the truth.

©2018 Sabine Hossenfelder (P)2018 Brilliance Publishing, Inc., all rights reserved.

Important book about biases of many scientists!

The topic of LOST IN MATH is about how many/most current physicists have abandoned serious scientific research in their search for "mathematical beauty". The author, a physicist herself, presents a strong case. Of course, cognitive bias has become a major issue is fields other than physics.

Narrator Laura Jennings does an outstanding job with difficult subject matter.

would be better read by the author

title is my only complaint, otherwise an excellent thought pump, worth more than one iteration

Is there Beauty in Physics?

This is not a complaint about the narrator, but I wish Dr. Hossenfelder was the narrator.

The main issue in this book is if we can use some sort of definition of Beauty to guide scientific research. Throughout history, people have proposed how the universe works and it is up to experiments to prove or disprove the explanation. It has usually taken many years to create an experiment to do that. Currently however, the cost of creating experiments is so high, it seems prudent to pick proposals that will successfully be confirmed. The criteria that is used to guide this process is the explanation's beauty.

Doctor Hossenfelder interviews many of physics best minds to ask if we should allow this to be our guiding principle.

Highly informatíve and very interesting

Anyone interested in the key issues in the foundational sciences will enjoy this exposition. The author provides an unique perspective in a relaxed style.

Great study in science biases

Overall great and interesting read in problems of modern science. A bit of "woke" from the author was not too decremental and didn't affect the point of the people the author is citing.
Great insights from the implications of the problems pinpointed by the author and funny writing style in general.
Recommended