From Atoms to Orchids: Unravelling the Symmetries of Life

Why do we see such exquisite symmetries in the living world: butterfly wings, orchid flowers, faces? Does the answer lie in physics, biology, or the way we look at things? To answer this question, we will delve into the origins of symmetry in plants. We will journey through many scales, from collisions between molecular filaments in a cell, to the blooming of a flower; from processes that last seconds, to those that span billions of years. We will see how seemingly chaotic behaviors at one level can lead to smooth, continuous behavior at another, and how symmetries can emerge at each level though endless repetition. Symmetries arise through a marriage between physics and biology: through the regularity of physical laws in space and time combined with the economy of natural selection. These symmetries point to an underlying simplicity in nature, a simplicity that also underlies the origins of our brains, through which we try to make sense of the world around us. Symmetries lie within us as much as in what we see. We cannot separate ourselves from nature, for we are woven into the same tapestry, yet the prevalence of symmetry tells us that the tapestry is imbued with a harmony that makes the world both beautiful and comprehensible to us.