Work and luxury in science: How important is the “beauty” of research

What is the importance of beauty in scientific research? How does it affect the quality of the work (and lives) of scientists? Write my paper helps student to make their writing interesting at quick phase. A study conducted through an international survey, the results of which were recently disclosed in a article about temper natureAnd It aims to investigate the factors and dynamics that influence the well-being of researchers, in this case physicists and biologists, active in academic institutions, laboratories or research institutes in different national contexts: India, Italy, the United Kingdom and the United States.

scanning Work and well-being in the sciences It was proposed online, in English and Italian. The Catholic University of America in Washington, DC led the investigation. The responses of more than three thousand scientists were collected: they were asked to describe the degree of satisfaction in the workplace, the experience they had during the pandemic and the role of aesthetics and awe in science. The answers revealed that, refuting the idea that scientists often have exclusively rational and logical beings, “beauty” appears to play a critical role: Beauty is related to the practice of science, which in some way also affects the well-being of those who work.

The objectives are clear: the survey is formulated to allow thinking about different aspects, first of all trying to understand How scientists in different national environments have been affected and investigated by the epidemic i Factors that can contribute to resilience in these challenging times. Therefore, the study aims to determine Degree of satisfaction in scientific jobs and increased sense of well-being, starting with a deeper understanding of researchers’ working conditions, an exploration that could also ultimately contribute to greater public confidence in science.

The documentary “Sense of Beauty” chronicles the work of CERN researchers and explores the relationship between beauty and truth

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Here are some questions suggested to the participants. “In which of the following aspects of your work do you meet beauty? “, 75% answered in cells, in molecules, in short, what they study, 61% in scientific theories, 54% in science teaching and 52% in scientific research process. “Which of the following aspects of the scientific process relate it to beauty?”: In this case, symmetry, simplicity, and elegance are crucial to physicists, while for biologists, complexity is in pleasurable colors and shapes. For both physicists and biologists, the beauty of science also lies in the logic of systems, in the arrangement and magic of hidden models (which will obviously be explored).

For 62% of the people interviewed, it was the beauty of science that motivated and write my paper convinced them to pursue a career and share their knowledge. Half of the respondents said that beauty helps them persevere and endure in the face of difficulties, fatigue and failure, and for 57%, beauty improves scientific understanding.

67% of scientists think that it is important for scientists to encounter beauty, awe, and wonder in their research. Conversely, for 11%, aesthetic considerations of this kind, relating for example to symmetry and elegance, would be negative for scientific progress. Generally, Experiments Awe, awe, and beauty at work are usually associated with higher levels of job satisfaction and improved mental health.

In the documentary beauty feeling by Valerio Jalongo (2017), filmed a few years after the discovery of the Higgs boson, during a new experiment for CERN – The largest laboratory in the world conducting scientific research in elementary particle physics – Exploring the mysterious energy that animates the universe, scientists and artists direct the viewer toward the shadow line in which science and art, in various ways, pursue truth and beauty. “Several years ago – the director explains at the beginning of the documentary – I read a fragment of the Greek philosopher Heraclitus. Nature loves to hide, He said. But isn’t nature all around us? What is running away from us? Is there something invisible to our eyes? […] As Einstein said, The greatest mystery is our ability to know the universe, to understand its mysterious simplicity and beauty“.

“I understood that true scholars love above all what they do not yet know.”Director Galongo explains. Beauty also lies in this puzzle. Added to his words were the words of Professor Tai Tsun Wu who, in the documentary, presented his idea of ​​beauty as follows: “Theory, in physics, must be beautiful in order to have more truth. Einstein’s general theory of relativity is very beautiful., Beautiful So much so that I found it very difficult to understand.”

One wonders, is there a sixth sense that guides scientists in knowledge? What a relationship Between truth and beauty? Let us stay, a moment longer, on the contents of this documentary, because – as we have seen – some phrases accurately answer questions regarding the value of beauty in science. Even the young physicists at CERN share their idea of ​​beauty, converging on the importance of knowledge, the amazement, in a constant attempt to solve the greatest mystery. “I believe that searching for something through exploration and thought is beauty”, “Physics attracts me because we don’t understand how the universe came about. Where it’s going. I think the mystery of the universe makes it beautiful.” Returning to the investigation and to that simplicity which physicists recognize as a form of beauty, another young researcher adds: “If the solution is simple and there is nothing else you can remove, reduce it to the essence, that is beauty.”

Subrahmanyan Chandrasekhar, winner of the 1983 Nobel Prize in Physics, talks about aesthetics in science, underlining ongoing research by leading scientists. Research refers to knowledge, revelation, and wonder as it occurs when creating a work of art (in the article Truth and beauty. Aesthetics and motives in science – Truth and beauty – He thoroughly investigates the reasons why the scientist engages in research work.

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Ratio Psychological comfort, 72% of survey respondents said they were mostly satisfied or completely satisfied with their work. But they appeared The embarrassments are not to be underestimated associated with impossible deadlines to respect, humiliation and bullying, and discrimination against women in particular, who also report levels of Burnt higher than men. Moreover, it is graduate students, 25%, who report serious levels of psychological distress, versus an extremely low percentage of teachers (full professors), only 2%.

In a recent article published on Bo LiveFederica D’Auria investigated the issue by focusing her attention on the more problematic and complex aspects related to mental health in the context of her PhD research, suggesting a focus on studies that have examined over the years the causes and consequences of some mental disorders, such as anxiety and depression, found among those who They choose to do work in scientific research.

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