To begin to understand what mathematicians and physicists see in the abstract structures of symmetries, let’s start with a familiar shape. We are fond of saying things are symmetric, but what does ...

Symmetry attracts us. Studies comparing people’s reactions to different faces have shown, for example, that they find highly symmetrical faces more attractive than less symmetrical faces. The symmetry ...

A group of mathematicians has shown that at critical moments, a symmetry called rotational invariance is a universal property across many physical systems. For more than 50 years, mathematicians have ...