Mario Vitale wrote:  
> I would like to add, from my experience in both fields, that science is in  
>some way mainly a search for 'truth', art is mainly a search for 'beauty'.  
>  
>   But in some cases scientists can see some 'beauty' in their theories,  
>and artists can see some 'truth' in their art.  
>  
  
A citation from another author who, too, had experience in both fields:  
  
"During my years of  teaching  literature  at  Cornell  and  
elsewhere  I demanded of my students the passion of science and  
the patience of poetry. As an artist and scholar I  prefer  the  
specific detail to the generalization, images to ideas, obscure  
facts  to  clear  symbols, and the discovered wild fruit to the  
synthetic jam".  
  
- Vladimir Nabokov's 1972 interview See  
http://www.lib.ru/NABOKOW/Inter01.txt  
  
  
Yuri Tulupenko