Knowledge only adds to beauty, it does not subtract

I always loved this (paraphrased) quote from Richard Feynman. To me, science and art are intertwined. Just as one might find beauty in an elegant equation, one might also find knowledge in an abstract painting. 

As someone from a science background, who was only first introduced to the sciences from a visual art perspective, I don’t quite understand why there must be a division of personalities, paradigms, and perspectives between art and science. In fact, during the Renaissance, to be an artist was to be a scientist – a chemist of the pigments, a physicist in optics, and an anatomist in portraiture.

As our world grows ever bigger and more siloed, I believe it’s more important than ever before to seek common ground, even where it seems impossible. If it means filling up the now mysterious chasm between the artists and the scientists, and building bridges towards new ways of thinking… so be it.