The Unreasonable Effectiveness of Mathematics in the Natural Sciences

Bibliographic Data

ID11936648
AuthorsSteve Russ (University of Warwick, corresponding author)
Year2011
Volume36
Issue3
Pages209-213
Publication date2011-09-01
Open AccessNo
TypeARTICLE
VenueInterdisciplinary Science Reviews (JOURNAL)
Journal identifiersISSN: 0308-0188 • E-ISSN: 1743-2790
PublisherTaylor & Francis (PUBLISHER • GB)
DOI10.1179/030801811x13082311482537
OpenAlexW2094749389
LanguageEN
Citations received2
References cited5

Why does mathematics work so well in describing some parts of the natural world? This question is profound, ancient, far-reaching and compelling. It seems to become more so in each respect as time goes by, at least for some people. For them it is an intellectual catalyst, serving as stimulus for further thought and questions at many levels without ever being significantly resolved itself. It was put in a particularly evocative form by the physicist Eugene Wigner as the title of a lecture in 1959 in New York: “The Unreasonable Effectiveness of Mathematics in the Natural Sciences”. He was well-qualified for the task having discovered in the 1930’s that the well-established mathematical theory of groups was just what he needed to make important progress in atomic physics. He received a share of the Nobel Prize in Physics in 1963 "for his contributions to the theory of the atomic nucleus and the elementary particles, particularly through the discovery and application of fundamental symmetry principles". His 1959 lecture was published in 1960 (presumably with a minimum of editorial attention, hence

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