Scientific Colloquium
October 10,  2003


What do sunflowers, Salvador Dali's painting "Sacrament of the Last Supper", and
quasicrystals have in common? These very disparate elements share a certain
number commonly known as the GOLDEN RATIO, expressed by the Greek letter PHI.
In a journey through mathematics and physics, botany and zoology, art and
architecture, taking in fractals and psychology on the way, I will explore
this extraordinary number, that has captured the imagination for millennia.
This will also be a story of obsession-of phi-fixated individuals who have
devoted their lives to discovering the properties of this number.
This tale begins with the ancient Egyptian and Greek mathematicians,
continues with the scientists and artists of the Renaissance, and takes us
right to such scientists and masters of the modern world as Penrose, Debussy,
and Le Corbusier.
Even more importantly, I will address the intriguing question of the
unreasonable effectiveness of mathematics in explaining nature, economics,
and evolutionary biology. Does mathematics exist idependent of humans? Or
is it just a creation of the human brain? Would an extraterrestrial intelligent
civilization (if one exists) be familiar with PHI?