The Secret Code: The Mysterious Formula that Rules Art, Nature, and Science by Priya Hemenway

I’d be comfortable betting that most university students have experienced feelings of doubt (even regret) in relation to what or where they have decided to study. I am one of those ‘lucky’ people. I LOVE my university, but almost every day I have doubts about my major. One day I want math, another I want philosophy, the next day physics is my passion, then maybe I decided I would be better suited in divinity or even… English (I know, gross). 

Being so consumed by information and experiences related to my degree made me forget that I don’t need to be getting a degree or taking a course in something to learn about it. 

In the London National Gallery gift shop I saw ‘The Secret Code: The Mysterious Formula that Rules Art, Nature, and Science’ on a shelf and thought the cover looked cool so I bought it not at all knowing what it was about. I definitely got lucky because I really enjoyed this read. It observes the world through the lense of the infamous Divine Proportion. I don’t always love reading about math or physics but I found that Hemenway did a great job at making the subjects interesting and easily understood. 

I really do miss math and physics and often find it hard to engage with them in settings other than a classroom. With this is mind, I am grateful for Hemenway’s writing style and material delivery that bear partial credit for re-sparking my engagement with calculus and physics.