In this sweeping book, applied mathematician and popular author David Orrell questions the promises and pitfalls of associating beauty with truth, showing how ideas of mathematical elegance have inspired--and have sometimes misled--scientists attempting to understand nature.

Orrell shows how the ancient Greeks constructed a concept of the world based on musical harmony; later thinkers replaced this model with a program, based on Newton's "rational mechanics," to reduce the universe to a few simple equations. He then turns to current physical theories, such as supersymmetric string...

Today, economics is everywhere, and it s never been more popular as bestselling books such as Freakonomics attest. But what is economics really about? What do the great economists think, and what can economics do for us today? David Orrell explains all in Introducing s trademark intelligent style, accompanied by brilliant illustrations from Borin van Loon.

David Orrell is a Canadian mathematician who lives in Oxford, the university from which he received his doctorate. His previous book was Economyths (Icon, 2010).

Borin Van Loon has worked on...