ABSTRACT
Ever since Johannes Kepler discovered that planetary orbits were ellipses and Isaac Newton described the effects of gravity by a mathematical equation embodying his famous inverse-square law, mathematics has increasingly permeated physics, and in some areas it has gone a long way towards converting that empirical subject into a kind of mathematical theology. Mathematics is beautiful, mysterious and not without a touch of mysticism. Science without mathematical structures is now unimaginable, but this was not always the case. Mathematics was very much a part of magic before science got off the ground, and its magical influences can still be found today inspiring many theoretical physicists, as it did long ago for the followers of Pythagoras. The intimate relationship between mathematics and science that has developed over the centuries is now taken very much for granted. We are now no longer aware of the magic. This chapter and the next two explore this extraordinary
symbiosis, how it began, what its limitations are and how our destiny is well and truly numbered.
