No subject better illustrates the divide between the two cultures - arts and sciences - than mathematics. To the outsider, mathematics is a strange, abstract world of horrendous technicality, full of weird symbols and complicated procedures, an impenetrable language and a black art. To the scientist, mathematics is the guarantor of precision and objectivity. It is also, astonishingly, the language of nature itself. No one who is closed off from mathematics can ever grasp the full significance of the natural order that is woven so deeply into the fabric of physical reality.

Paul Davies, The Mind of God: The Scientific Basis for a Rational World