The Two Faces of Beauty_Science and Art

Pushpa Mittra Bhargava is among India’s most reputed scientists and is widely regarded

SCIENCE AND aRT T H E T W O FA C E S O F B E A U T Y

as the architect of modern biology and biotechnology in the country. The founder-director of Centre for Cellular and Molecular Biology situated in Hyderabad, India, he is also a writer, thinker, and consultant. Bhargava has authored five books, and has over 125 major

SCIENCE AND aRT T H E T W O FA C E S O F B E A U T Y

scientific publications to his credit, as well as over 500 articles covering a wide spectrum of knowledge. He is a recipient of over 100 national and international honours and awards including the Padma Bhushan, the Légion d’honneur and the National Citizens

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Award India.

cience and art are both manifestations of beauty and creativity. As mankind has evolved intellectually and socially and as science has progressed, artistic creations by

humans have tended towards increasing harmony with nature and they have become more abstract―like mathematics, which is the abstraction of all sciences. The authors of this

Trained as a scientist, Chandana Chakrabarti is also a communications expert, actor,

unusual work postulate some critical ideas on science, art and aesthetics, and establish

columnist and writer, whose writings have covered a variety of fields and issues. Chakrabarti

that we need both, a scientific temper and the temper of art.

played a major role in setting up of the Centre for Cellular and Molecular Biology at Hyderabad. She co-authored two books with P M Bhargava and wrote a popular column

The eight theses that relate to science and art, and their rationale presented in this book,

for Deccan Chronicle, a widely circulated newspaper of South India. She has also acted in

are a culmination of observations, conversations, readings, ideas exchanged, and thoughts

Telugu films.

that span a journey of six decades.

Maqbool Fida Husain was one of the most celebrated and internationally recognized Indian artists of the 20th century. With a career spanning several decades, he made

Evidence to support these theses is drawn from mathematics, physics, studies in molecular

significant contributions in other fields as well―as a photographer, filmmaker and

biology, and also from music, fine art and design. Readers are taken through lucid prose

member of the Indian Parliament. A member of the Bombay Progressive Artists’ Group

with the help of illustrations of natural phenomenon such as spiral galaxies, spider web,

in the 1940s and ’50s, Husain shared P M Bhargava’s penchant of making irrelevant the

the Fibonacci series and fractals in lightning, and of products of human creativity such as

man-made boundaries which separate one area of knowledge from the other.

paintings of masters like Picasso, M F Husain and Escher, musical pieces, textile fragments and Ajanta caves frescoes.

Susumu Ohno, an American scientist of Japanese origin, was a geneticist and molecular

Pushpa Mittra Bhargava z Chandana Chakrabarti

biologist renowned for his pioneering work in areas of evolution through gene duplication

The accompanying DVD is a reproduction of two light-and-sound shows held in Hyderabad

and genetic sex determination. Following his basic belief that all of nature is characterized

of artist M F Husain’s 25 paintings on some of the most important events of the last century

by repetition, in 1986 Ohno converted gene coding to musical scores by assigning notes

with their description as written by Dr Bhargava. The music on the CD was created by

(building blocks of music) to nucleotides (building blocks of DNA). He was elected to the

Susumu Ohno, a distinguished American geneticist, by converting the language of DNA―

American Academy of Arts and Sciences in 1976 and to the US National Academy of Sciences

DNA Music

the genetic material―into the language of music.

by Susumu Ohno, Geneticist © Susumu Ohno

in 1981, besides being conferred many other coveted honours and awards.

First Published in 2014 by Mapin Publishing www.mapinpub.com

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SCIENCE AND aRT T H E T W O FA C E S O F B E A U T Y

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cience and art are both manifestations of beauty and creativity. As mankind has evolved intellectually and socially and as science has progressed, artistic creations by

humans have tended towards increasing harmony with nature and they have become more abstract―like mathematics, which is the abstraction of all sciences. The authors of this unusual work postulate some critical ideas on science, art and aesthetics, and establish that we need both, a scientic temper and the temper of art.

The eight theses that relate to science and art, and their rationale presented in this book, are a culmination of observations, conversations, readings, ideas exchanged, and thoughts that span a journey of six decades.

Evidence to support these theses is drawn from mathematics, physics, studies in molecular biology, and also from music, ne art and design. Readers are taken through lucid prose with the help of illustrations of natural phenomenon such as spiral galaxies, spider web, the Fibonacci series and fractals in lightning, and of products of human creativity such as paintings of masters like Picasso, M F Husain and Escher, musical pieces, textile fragments and Ajanta caves frescoes.

The accompanying DVD is a reproduction of two light-and-sound shows held in Hyderabad of artist M F Husain’s 25 paintings on some of the most important events of the last century with their description as written by Dr Bhargava. The music on the CD was created by Susumu Ohno, a distinguished American geneticist, by converting the language of DNA― the genetic material―into the language of music.

With 66 illustrations

SCIENCE AND aRT T H E T W O FA C E S O F B E A U T Y

SCIENCE AND aRT T H E T W O FA C E S O F B E A U T Y

Pushpa Mittra Bhargava z Chandana Chakrabarti

MAPIN PUBLISHING

First published in India in 2014 by Mapin Publishing Pvt. Ltd Simultaneously published in the United States of America in 2014 by Grantha Corporation E: mapin@mapinpub.com Distributed in North America by Antique Collectors’ Club T: 1 800 252 5231 • F: 413 529 0862 E: info@antiquecc.com www.antiquecollectorsclub.com Distributed in United Kingdom and Europe by Gazelle Book Services Ltd. T: 44 1524 68765 • F: 44 1524 63232 E: sales@gazellebooks.co.uk www.gazellebookservices.co.uk Distributed in Southeast Asia by Paragon Asia Co. Ltd T: 66 2877 7755 • F: 66 2468 9636 E: info@paragonasia.com Distributed in the Rest of the World by Mapin Publishing Pvt. Ltd 706 Kaivanna, Panchvati, Ellisbridge, Ahmedabad 380006 INDIA T: 91 79 4022 8228 • F: 91 79 4022 8201 E: mapin@mapinpub.com www.mapinpub.com

Text © Pushpa Mittra Bhargava and Chandana Chakrabarti Photographs and illustrations © as listed All rights reserved under international copyright conventions. No part of this book may be reproduced or transmitted in any form or by any means, electronic or mechanical, including photocopy, recording or any other information storage and retrieval system, without prior permission in writing from the publisher.

The moral rights of Pushpa Mittra Bhargava and Chandana Chakrabarti to be identified as authors of this work are asserted.

ISBN: 978-81-89995-69-0 (Mapin) ISBN: 978-1-935677-24-6 (Grantha) LCCN: 2014930105 Copyeditor: Suguna Ramanathan/Mapin Editorial Editorial Support: Neha Manke/Mapin Editorial Design: Jalp Lakhia/Mapin Design Studio Production: Gopal Limbad/Mapin Design Studio Printed by Parksons Graphics, Mumbai

6 PREFACE 12 INTRODUCTION 13 DEFINITIONS 15 THE THESES

17 THE FIRST THESIS Nature is inherently beautiful at all levels of resolution

24 THE SECOND THESIS Nature follows laws of science

26 THE THIRD, FOURTH AND FIFTH THESES Nature loves certain mathematical relationships that we are genetically programmed to recognize, such recognition giving us an evolutionary advantage

58 THE SIXTH THESIS Man’s aesthetic creations are inspired by nature

70 THE SEVENTH THESIS All forms of creativity have elements of beauty

74 THE EIGHTH THESIS A scientist is intuitively partial to beauty 77 CONCLUSIONS 79 LIMITATIONS 80 REFERENCES 81 OTHER RESOURCES 82 ACKNOWLEDGEMENTS

preface he eight theses that relate to science and art, and their rationale presented in this

T

book, are a culmination of observations, conversations, readings, ideas exchanged,

and thoughts that span a journey of six decades. I shared this journey only in the latter half, by which time the seeds of several questions were already sown, but I was there to witness and participate in the shaping of some of the ideas.

PMB’s (P M Bhargava) deep engagement with knowledge and beauty, which has become a leitmotif of his life, had begun very early. Goaded by his conviction that knowledge knows no barriers and that its artificial division by humans is no more than an alibi for ignorance, he glided across disciplines with ease. So, with an academic training in mathematics, physics and chemistry, and none whatsoever in biology, he spent six decades of his professional life being a biologist. It was the same conviction that also allowed him to delve into disciplines apparently far away from biology, such as the social sciences.

It was in the 1960s when PMB was invited as a guest faculty by the Department of Microbiology at Maharaja Sayajirao University of Baroda that he went across to the school of art―the portals of which have been crossed by many talented painters in India ― to meet its head, the well-known painter K G Subramanyan. The chat helped sharpen questions about creative processes, the aesthetics of science, the science of aesthetics, what motivates a scientist, an artist, a writer or a musician, were there commonalities, and so on. When, later, Francoise Gilot, Picasso’s ex-mistress and author of the book My Life with Picasso, visited PMB in Hyderabad with her husband Jonas Salk―a close friend of PMB―there was yet another occasion to continue the above dialogue. In fact, he picked the brain in this regard of virtually every eminent scientist from abroad or India who visited his laboratory in the 1960s, 70s, and 80s―which included more than a score of Nobel Laureates. He even persuaded Martin Pollock, FRS, head of the first department of molecular biology in Europe, at the University of Edinburgh, to give a public lecture on science and art.

6

Simplicity, elegance and functionality were three elements that struck him, whether they were in a Frank Lloyd Wright-designed house in which he spent his first night in the US in 1953, or in Watson and Crick’s double helix model of DNA that he saw for the first time in 1957 in Crick’s lab in Cambridge, or in the Ikat weaves of Indian handlooms that, in a way, became his identity. These three elements, in time, also became the principles on which he built the Centre for Cellular and Molecular Biology (CCMB), an institute he conceived and directed in Hyderabad in the 1970s and 80s.

The Hyderabad of the 1950s provided little opportunity for synthesis of ideas between the arts and the sciences. But in the late 1960s, the nucleus of a contemporary art scene began to emerge in the laid-back city, with Laxma Goud, Surya Prakash, and Dakoji Devraj eking out a living from a garage-turned-studio. It was here that PMB first met M F Husain that led to a close association till the latter passed away. Surya Prakash and Laxma Goud collaborated with PMB in the making of a permanent exhibition on the method of science in the late 1970s. And when PMB began building the CCMB in the early 1980s, he invited Surya Prakash to be the artist-in-residence at the institute, a concept never heard of before in a government-funded laboratory. CCMB gave Hyderabad its first art gallery. In the campus of CCMB, Husain turned a tennis practice wall into a mural. A dedicated room for Husain in the institute’s guest house saw the barefoot painter trot in and out without announcement for several years, much to the delight of scientists. Art exhibitions and camps on the campus of a scientific research institute gave both artists and scientists several opportunities to comprehend the works of the other, besides drawing public from across the city. CCMB even had a well-known Chinese artist, Li Yan, spend a month at the institute. CCMB’s art collection today is worth a fortune.

But the most interesting event that brought together painters, sculptors, dancers, musicians, filmmakers, writers and thinkers for a conversation that gave a fillip to many of these thoughts was in 1987, when the CCMB was formally dedicated to the nation by 7

the then Prime Minister Rajiv Gandhi. On this occasion, besides two weeks of science symposia, a one-day symposium on art and science was organized in the institute.

Besides over 300 of the most talented scientists attending from across the world and India, there were four Nobel Prize winners―Francis Crick, Severo Ochoa, George Kohler and Carleton Gajdusek―and three (Luc Montaignier who discovered HIV, Bob Edwards who developed the so called “test-tube” baby technique, and John Gurdon who made seminal contribution to cell biology) who won the Nobel Prize later. The importance of the occasion can be judged by the fact that four countries―China, UK, Germany, and Russia―were represented by their respective Ambassadors.

The symposium on art and science was to explore the relationship between art and science, the creative urge in art and science and the resultant new perception of the environment, the common concern and the interplay of the two, and their role in human progress. Sunil Kothari and Sadanand Menon, dance critics; Chandralekha, the danseuse; Raja Ramanna, scientist and pianist; Jayant Narlikar, scientist and popular science writer; Gulam Mohammed Sheikh, and Bhupan Khakhar, painters; Vidya Shankar, musician; Vikram Seth, writer; Kumar Shahani and Mani Kaul, filmmakers; Charles Correa, architect; Abu Abraham, cartoonist and commentator; and Bakul Patel, who later became the Sherif of Bombay, were the participants in this dialogue. This was the first time that an event of this kind brought people together from such a wide range of creative fields. Add to this the galaxy of scientists mentioned above and the who’s who of art from Hyderabad, and we had a group which, quality-wise and range-wise, may have never been replicated elsewhere. The stimulating exchange of creative minds at the meeting probably left everyone changed a little forever.

In the next few years that followed, the art scene in Hyderabad was transformed, with several art galleries springing up and a spate of exhibitions, setting in motion a keen and growing corporate interest in art. The government which had initially been critical 8

of a science lab engaging with the arts, leading to questions in the Indian Parliament, began eagerly supporting far more resource-intensive art acquisitions and installations in new science institutes and even other government departments and institutions― even though in some of them paintings were hung upside down!

The many interactions we had with a variety of people led to our jointly writing about our perception of the relationship between science and art, and presenting it at various meetings and conferences that followed. Shyam Benegal, the accomplished filmmaker, also a close friend, became keen on making a film based on a script that we had written together.

We were thrilled as we could not have thought of a better person to convert it into a film.

Shyam, PMB and I gave several presentations in the late eighties, two of which I distinctly remember―to the Department of Science and Technology, and to the National Film Development Corporation―looking for a sponsor, but we could not raise for our proposed film, the sum of 28 lakhs, a pittance even by the standards then. The film never happened.

In the mid-1990s, our uncharted path meandered into the realm of music with the visit of Susumu Ohno, a distinguished American geneticist (a member of the US National Academy of Sciences) to Hyderabad. He had converted the language of DNA, the genetic material, into the language of music. A CD of this music is provided in this book.

M F Husain’s close friendship with PMB continued beyond the years in CCMB, and often we found him call on us at our office, unannounced. Whether it was the opening of his art museum in Hyderabad, or the premier of his films, or the launch of his several books, or to share a wild idea, Husain came and went when he felt like.

Just after the dawn of the 21st century, one day, Husain came over to our office, excited that he had just finished 88 paintings to mark his 88th birthday. He asked PMB, what next? PMB thoughtfully replied, “Husain, you and I have both been a witness to the 9

major part of the last century which has been so far the most eventful in all of human history. Why don’t you paint the most important 100 events of the last century?”

Husain jumped at the idea but there were two conditions attached: PMB would have to give him the list of the 100 events, and after he had painted it, PMB would have to write about the events. PMB agreed.

Soon, PMB met the first condition and produced a list of 100 major global events that he put together. A few months later, Husain turned up again and announced that he had finished 25 paintings and that he had got life-size canvas prints of them. He had done all of this in his studio in Dubai. It was now PMB’s job to see if they fitted in any of the 100 events he had listed and to meet the second condition, which was to write about the event and the painting. Our office had no space to keep the huge replicas, so PMB asked for photographs of the 25 canvasses. Along with that PMB also asked Mustafa, Husain’s son, to make sure his father put down a few words about what he had in mind when painting the canvas. Husain complied.

The paintings were bright, bold and powerful in Husain’s inimitable style. PMB was so inspired that I had not ever seen him push away his planned work to start something that wasn’t then on the agenda. As he began writing, the message in each painting started unfolding like the pages of a book; and what he thought would be a line or two about each event, became, at times, pages―and that too, in open verse which he had never attempted earlier. The miracle was that all the 25 paintings could be slotted into 15 events out of the list of 100, plus an introduction to the 20th century. Some events took more than one painting to make sense.

Husain was thrilled with the outcome. Mustafa and his wife Najma soon brought out a gorgeous publication of the paintings with the text for private circulation. In all this excitement, I merely suggested that with a little effort it could be turned into a sound10

and-light show in his museum, and forgot about it. Husain didn’t rest till the idea was delivered as two live shows in Hyderabad, where in a dark hall, visitors were led from one painting to the next, with each canvas unfolding as two voices read the lines and a spotlight illuminated the canvas, and live music filled in the spaces. Husain followed it up by having Vijay Marur and me, who had lent our voices to the show, have it recorded in a studio and convert it into a DVD for private distribution. The DVD in this book is a reproduction of that effort―perhaps, an unprecedented collaboration between a painter and a scientist, establishing that there is only one language of all creativity which every truly creative individual, be it a scientist or a painter, understands.

While the journey continues, we are delighted that we finally have this book. As a creative effort in a new area, it is bound to suffer from drawbacks but we hope that the positive aspect of the book will be enough compensation for such drawbacks.

Chandana Chakrabarti

11

introduction lassification is one of the most important tools for converting information into

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knowledge, a fact that human beings discovered early in history. One of the

most broad and commonly used classification of knowledge has been the distinction made between science and art, with science today encompassing not only the ‘hard’ sciences but also social and behavioural sciences: sociology, political science, history and psychology. Art now includes fine arts such as painting and sculpture, performing arts such as singing and dancing, graphic arts, traditional arts and crafts, and literature.

Unfortunately, however, it is forgotten that classification is always for the sake of convenience; drawing indelible lines between the areas or objects that are being classified can be misleading simply because they could have a relationship based on parameters other than those on which the classification was based.

The purpose of this book is to show that science and art are indeed related, interdependent and two sides of the same coin. Whether we call it the coin of creativity or the coin of beauty, it is the same coin for beauty and creativity are linked, beauty being the hallmark of all creativity. We hope this book will initiate an in-depth discussion on the relationship between science and art, and open up new and exciting areas of exploration worthy of a Nobel Prize, if one takes that for a moment as a mark of quality, of whatever offers a deep and novel insight into a hitherto unexplored area.

Surprisingly, this exercise has not been undertaken in depth in our country heretofore ―not even in institutions such as Visva-Bharati University at Santiniketan, or the M S University of Baroda, which were the earliest organizations in our country to have both a Faculty of Fine Arts and a Faculty of Science.

Let us begin by defining some of the terms that we have used.

12

definitions Beauty One may define beauty in many ways. To us, a satisfying definition of beauty would be: conformity of parts to one another and to the whole in such a way that it gives us a pleasing, inwardly satisfying aesthetic experience and makes us respond in appreciation, always inwardly, and often also outwardly. This appreciation comes naturally and intuitively with no ulterior motive or purpose; it gives us the feeling that we have grown richer in knowledge and experience without acquiring definable or concrete bits of information or skills that can be articulated precisely in spoken words or action. The response is, therefore, abstract; yet it leaves a deep imprint on us.

Science Science is the body of knowledge acquired through the use of the scientific method which consists of four steps: question, hypothesis, experiment and answer. Such knowledge is evolutionary, falsifiable, verifiable and repeatable; it has an element of universality and allows one to make predictions that can be tested. The right to question is fundamental to both the scientific method and to science, though neither allows questioning just for questioning’s sake; in the scientific method; certain criteria need to be satisfied before one may raise a question regarding existing knowledge.

Creativity Creativity is a faculty which leads to something that has never been done before and is qualitatively new; it calls for interplay of intelligence, environment and media, all to be used in a unique and unprecedented manner.

Evolution Here we refer only to biological evolution following the Darwinian principle of natural 13

selection. This evolution was preceded by chemical evolution on our planet (and elsewhere) which, in turn, was preceded by astrophysical evolution in our universe that led to the formation of the various objects and structures that we perceive in space.

The astrophysical evolution was a consequence of physical evolution by which we mean the formation of fundamental particles and elements that, if one accepts the Big Bang theory of the formation of our universe some 10-15 billion years ago, must have occurred very soon (in the first few minutes) after the Big Bang.

Nature We consider Nature to be a consequence of physical, astrophysical, chemical, biological and social evolution in that sequence, encompassing all of the universe and governed by laws of physics, chemistry and mathematics. Although, theoretically, man can be thought of being as much a part of Nature as any other living or non-living object, we will, when using the term Nature, exclude products of human intervention. This is because man is the only species that has acquired an inordinate capacity to modify (even destroy) what is around us and does so at such a rapid rate that makes it appear as if a battle has ensued between man and Nature. Further, man’s own survival is dependent on the manner and extent to which he uses his understanding of the laws of Nature that has given him this power. (The term ‘man’ used by us for the sake of convenience, means ‘humans’; it should not be seen as a sign of male chauvinism.)

14

the theses

W

e now put forward eight theses that relate Science and Art.

z There is inherent beauty in what Nature generates, or gives rise to, following natural laws―from the lowest level of resolution as is obtained with the naked eye to the highest as is obtained with electron microscopes, X-rays or telescopes.

z All that happens in Nature follows laws of mathematics, physics, chemistry and biology.

These four sciences represent a hierarchy among themselves, with mathematics at the top and biology at the bottom; mathematics can be considered as the ‘vital force’ of whatever Nature does and whatever is found in Nature.

z Certain mathematical relationships are dominant in nature over others so that they recur over and over again, often in apparently disparate fields.

z We are probably genetically programmed during evolution to recognize these relationships and respond to them through aesthetic experience. Appreciation of beauty is thus built into our genes and implies intuitive recognition of certain specific patterns and relationships that we then designate as beautiful.

z The appreciation of beauty, built in all probability into our genes, must have conferred an evolutionary advantage to the human species, which alone seems capable of the aesthetic experience that is the basis of all art.

z When man creates, he is essentially generating beauty. His success depends on the extent to which what has been created by him is analogous to what is found in Nature 15

and is in consonance with certain natural laws. Consequently, in man’s eternal search for beauty, he is also―sometimes consciously and sometimes subconsciously―seeking similes in Nature.

z Creativity and beauty are linked in all areas of human endeavour, including science.

This suggests that all creative activities must have common elements in terms of methodology to the extent it can be formalized.

z Given two theories, a good scientist would intuitively choose the one that is aesthetically more satisfying.

We now present evidence in favour of the theses we have set out above, taking them one by one.

16

THE FIRST THESIS NATURE IS INHERENTLY BEAUTIFUL AT ALL LEVELS OF RESOLUTION

17

1Ă?

Figure 1 Spiral galaxies.

Figure 2 A flower.

Photograph by B Nageshwara Rao. 18

W

e intuitively respond to patterns that Nature generates, seeing them as beautiful, regardless of their size. It could be a galaxy, trillions of miles in diametre (Figure 1);

or a flower, a beehive or a spider’s web (Figures 2, 3 and 4), only a few centimetres or a few metres long; or the compound eye of an ant or the scent gland on a rose petal (Figures 5 and 6), which are so small that only a scanning electron microscope (SEM) that provides high resolution at low magnification (about 700 in Figures 5 and 6) can visualize them; or the inside of the mammalian female’s reproductive tract that looks like a garden when looked at through a SEM (Figure 7). All of them register as beautiful with most of us.

Thus, Nature’s relentless quest for order and beauty leads it to generate as much beauty in tiny spaces where the human eye cannot see it as it does over larger spaces.

2Ï 19

3Ï|4Ð

Figure 3 A beehive.

Photograph by B Nageshwara Rao. Figure 4 A spider’s web.

Photograph by B Nageshwara Rao. 20

5Ă?|6Ă?

Figure 5 A scanning electron micrograph of

Figure 6 A scanning electron micrograph of

the compound eye of an ant, magnified a few

the scent glands on a rose petal, magnified a

hundred times. By P D Gupta.

few hundred times. By P D Gupta.

21

7Ă?

Figure 7 A scanning electron micrograph of the reproductive tract of a female cat. Source not traceable.

Figure 8a A moonscape. From Cambridge Photographic Atlas of the Planets.

Figure 8b A freeze-fracture electron micrograph of the cytoplasmic membrane of a human lung fibroblast. By P D Gupta.

22

8a Ă? | 8b Ă’

One would then expect that similar patterns would be repeated in both very large objects and very small objects found in Nature. Indeed, this turns out to be so.

Thus compare the moonscape in Figure 8a with the freeze-fracture electron micrograph of the membrane of a human lung fibroblast cell in Figure 8b. The former covers a distance of a few hundred kilometres; the latter a distance of a few hundred Angstroms (1 Angstrom=10-13km).

23

THE SECOND THESIS NATURE FOLLOWS LAWS OF SCIENCE

24

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hat, then, is it about Nature that generates so much beauty in the minds of those who behold it? It is order. What is it that is common between beauty

painted on the canvas of Time by Nature and that created by man? The common element is, again, order.

Nature generates order through following what we call “natural laws” such as the laws of science―of physics, chemistry and mathematics. Beauty arises in Nature out of the simple, universal laws of science, just as the laws of science arise out of beauty in Nature. Our perception and recognition of the laws of science are merely expressions of our ability to perceive beauty. This, then, is the seminal relationship between beauty and science: they are two sides of the same coin―two interrelated, interdependent manifestations of Nature.

We have already mentioned that we intuitively recognize patterns as being beautiful.

Patterns follow mathematical laws.

Let us look at another example. The visible spectrum as obtained, for example, in a rainbow or through the use of a prism, consists of light of different wavelengths or frequencies. On the increasing wavelength scale, one goes from red through orange, yellow, green, blue and indigo, to violet. This is one of Nature’s most beautiful patterns.

This is also the order in which we perceive colours as warm or cool. Red and yellow are universally regarded as warm colours whereas blue and violet are regarded as cool colours. Bees associate warmth with floral colours in the same order.1 The concept of harmony and disharmony in colour composition is―at least partly―based on the relative position of colour in the visible spectrum.

25

THE THIRD, FOURTH AND FIFTH THESES NATURE LOVES CERTAIN MATHEMATICAL RELATIONSHIPS THAT WE ARE GENETICALLY PROGRAMMED TO RECOGNIZE, SUCH RECOGNITION GIVING US AN EVOLUTIONARY ADVANTAGE

26

ll forms and structures we see in Nature―animate or inanimate, from rocks to

A

man―are the result of the use of scientific laws of which the ultimate language

of elaboration is mathematics. There are abundant examples of beauty―both natural and man-made―following certain, preferred mathematical rules.

Take, for example, beauty of the plant world which has been an important part of the folklore of beauty. If you count the number of leaves on successive branches of a plant or a tree, starting from the bottom, the numbers you are likely to obtain would not be random. They would fall in a series―a Fibonacci series. In such a series, the next number is always the sum of the preceding two numbers such as: 0, 1, 1, 2, 3, 5, 8, 13, 21, 34, 55 and so on (Figure 9). The arrangement of the whorls on a pine cone or a pineapple also follows a sequence of the Fibonacci series, as does the number of petals in flowers.

Thus, lilies have 3 petals, buttercups 5, delphiniums 8, marigold 13, asters 21, and daisies 34, 55 or 89.

In a giant sunflower, the seeds are found in two intersecting families of spirals, one winding clockwise and the other anticlockwise; the number of spirals in each family is 34 and 55, or 55 and 89, or 89 and 144―all Fibonacci numbers. Similarly, the number of clockwise vs. counter-clockwise spirals on pine cones are adjacent Fibonacci numbers.

Fibonacci numbers abound in the animal world too. Thus, a star fish has 5 segments, and an octopus has 8 tentacles―both Fibonacci numbers.

Figure 9 Fibonacci series.

9Î 27

How are Fibonacci numbers generated in living organisms? A fascinating possible answer to this question was provided in 2002 by an Indian scientist working abroad, Amar Klar.2 If we allow one cell to divide and give rise to two cells, and then the two daughter cells divide at the same time to give rise to four cells, then similarly, to eight cells, and so on, number of cells in the cell colony at any given time would be a number in the exponential series 1, 2, 4, 8, 16, 32, 64, 128 and so on. If, however, the two daughter cells from the initial one cell did not divide at the same time, but divided asymmetrically in the temporal dimension, the number of cells at any given time would be a Fibonnaci number (Figure 10)!

Cells (Fibonacci Number) Juvenile Cell

1

Mature Cell

1

J

2

M M

Sinister 13cc vs. 8c

Dexter 13c vs. 8cc

M M

J J

J

M

M

M M

M J

M

J

3 J

5

M

8

Number of Clockwise v/s Counter-

Fibonacci pattern in plants. A symmetric cell

clockwise Spirals on Pine Cones are

division aecting generation time may explain

Adjoining Fibonacci Series Numbers

Fibonacci pattern of morphogenesis

10 Ă?

Similarly, the patterns we witness on the wings of a butterfly or the cuticle of an insect or the web of a spider follow a distinct mathematical logic. Isn’t it incredible that so much order exists amidst the apparent chaos around us! Clearly, there are certain mathematical preferences in Nature.

A few words now about one of the most magical numbers that exists: 1.618, the golden ratio known independently to many ancient cultures. A rectangle in which the ratio of the two sides is 1.618 is called a golden rectangle. Many buildings in various cultures and civilizations in the ancient and medieval period were built in the form of a golden rectangle.

28

11 Ă?

Figure 10 Left: Fibonacci series on a pine cone; Right: A possible mechanism of formation of the Fibonacci pattern in living systems. Courtesy Amar Klar.

Figure 11 The Parthenon in Acropolis, Athens.

29

1

=

0.618 (ĭ)

¥5+1 2

=

1.618

¥5-1 2

=

0.618

1.618

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Ȧ Series 1, ĭ1, ĭ2, ĭ3, ĭ4.... is both additive and multiplicative.

12 Ï | 13 Ð

B

A

E

F

C

D

Figure 12 Some properties of the golden ratio; 1.618 is the only number for which these properties hold true. Sections a and b of a line connecting any three consecution apexes of a pentagon, so that b/a=1.618 and (a+b)/b=1.618, are called golden sections, and have played an important role in both ancient and modern artistic designs.

Figure 13 Golden rectangle and logarithmic spiral derived from it.

30

An example would be the Parthenon, one of the most beautiful buildings in the world, built by the Greeks in pre-Christian era on the famous Acropolis in Athens (Figure 11). Some of the properties of the golden ratio are given in Figure 12. An interesting outcome of the golden ratio is diagrammatically stated in Figure 13 in which ABCD is a golden rectangle. If you take out the square ABEF from this rectangle, the rectangle that you are left with, ECDF, is also a golden rectangle. If you keep on doing this as shown in the figure, and then join the apexes of the squares, what you get is a logarithmic spiral. This is the shape that many galaxies have, of which one is shown in Figure 13; this is the shape that vines and creepers take at their ends, and this is the shape of the spiral one finds on sea shells!

Not only that, the ratio of any two successive numbers of the Fibonnaci series mentioned above tends to be 1.618 as the numbers become larger. Leonardo da Vinci showed that in a normal human being, the ratio of the height from the head to the toe, and the distance from the navel to the toe, was 1.618―the golden ratio. And many years ago, in a paper in the well-known scientific journal Nature, it was shown that the DNA (deoxyribonucleic acid, the genetic material) has several golden ratios in its structure!

There are other interesting arrangements. There are five and only five regular solids possible; they are the tetrahedron with four identical sides, the cube with six, the octahedron with eight, the dodecahedron with 12, and the isododecahedron with 20 identical sides.

The well-known American painter, Morton Bradley, has created an amazing variety of paintings using only these regular solids, and these paintings appeal to one almost intuitively (Figure 14). The regular solids are full of the golden ratio.

In fact, it had been acknowledged all through history that certain formats have interesting characteristics. For example, Vitruvius, the first century Roman writer on architecture, said: “In order for an ensemble shared in unequal parts to look beautiful there must be the same ratio between the small part and the large as between the large one and the whole.�

31

14 Ï Figure 14 A set of paintings by the American

Figure 16 Cast of a child’s kidney, venous and

painter Morton Bradley. Reproduced from Span.

arterial systems. © Manfred Kage, Institut für wissenschaftliche Fotografie. From Peitgen,

Figure 15 The human brain. From Incredible

Jurgens and Saupe, Chaos and Fractals, p.176,

Voyage Exploring the Human Body, p.78,

Springer-Verlag, 1992.

National Geographical Society, Hebrew 2000.

32

Pushpa Mittra Bhargava is among India’s most reputed scientists and is widely regarded as the architect of modern biology and biotechnology in the country. The founder-director of Centre for Cellular and Molecular Biology situated in Hyderabad, India, he is also a writer, thinker, and consultant. Bhargava has authored ve books, and has over 125 major scientic publications to his credit, as well as over 500 articles covering a wide spectrum of knowledge. He is a recipient of over 100 national and international honours and awards including the Padma Bhushan, the Légion d’honneur and the National Citizens Award India.

Trained as a scientist, Chandana Chakrabarti is also a communications expert, actor, columnist and writer, whose writings have covered a variety of elds and issues. Chakrabarti played a major role in setting up of the Centre for Cellular and Molecular Biology at Hyderabad. She co-authored two books with P M Bhargava and wrote a popular column for Deccan Chronicle, a widely circulated newspaper of South India. She has also acted in Telugu lms.

Maqbool Fida Husain was one of the most celebrated and internationally recognized Indian artists of the 20th century. With a career spanning several decades, he made signicant contributions in other elds as well―as a photographer, lmmaker and member of the Indian Parliament. A member of the Bombay Progressive Artists’ Group in the 1940s and ’50s, Husain shared P M Bhargava’s penchant of making irrelevant the man-made boundaries which separate one area of knowledge from the other.

Susumu Ohno, an American scientist of Japanese origin, was a geneticist and molecular biologist renowned for his pioneering work in areas of evolution through gene duplication and genetic sex determination. Following his basic belief that all of nature is characterized by repetition, in 1986 Ohno converted gene coding to musical scores by assigning notes (building blocks of music) to nucleotides (building blocks of DNA). He was elected to the American Academy of Arts and Sciences in 1976 and to the US National Academy of Sciences

MAPIN PUBLISHING www.mapinpub.com

Printed in India

in 1981, besides being conferred many other coveted honours and awards.

GENERAL The Two Faces of Beauty

Science and Art

Pushpa Mittra Bhargava and Chandana Chakrabarti

M F HUSAIN’S

vision

DNA Music

20TH CENTURY

by Susumu Ohno, Geneticist © Susumu Ohno

Paintings by M F HUSAIN Interpretation by Dr P M Bhargava © M F Husain, 2007. All rights reserved.

First Published in 2014 by Mapin Publishing www.mapinpub.com

First Published in 2014 by Mapin Publishing www.mapinpub.com This DVD accompanies the book

This CD accompanies the book

SCIENCE AND aRT

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Pushpa Mittra Bhargava z Chandana Chakrabarti

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T H E T W O FA C E S O F B E A U T Y

SCIENCE AND aRT T H E T W O FA C E S O F B E A U T Y

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84 pages, 66 colour illustrations with two DVDs 7 x 8.75” (175 x 222 mm), hc ISBN: 978-81-89995-69-0 (Mapin) ISBN: 978-1-935677-24-6 (Grantha) ₹1500 | $35 | £22 2014 • World rights

Pushpa Mittra Bhargava z Chandana Chakrabarti Un au

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cop yin g, h ir

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radio

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