Abstract

Symmetry: Culture and Science
Volume 37, Number 2, pages 117-118 (2026)
https://doi.org/10.26830/symmetry_2026_2_117

New perspectives on symmetry across disciplines preparing for the Symmetry Festival 2027

Simone Brasili, Johan Gielis

Dear All,

We are pleased to present the second issue of Symmetry: Culture and Science for 2026. Following our recent transition to full open access, we continue our efforts to broaden the visibility of symmetry studies and to strengthen the international community that supports the journal.

At the same time, we are pleased to announce the preliminary preparations for the Symmetry Festival 2027 in Tokyo, in collaboration with the Society for the Science of Form in Japan. We hope that this event will bring together scientists, researchers, professors, artists, educators and practitioners from around the world to celebrate the many dimensions of symmetry in science, culture, and the arts. It will also provide an opportunity to honour the legacy of Gyorgy Darvas and to continue the rich tradition of scholarship and international collaboration that has characterized the journal and the wider symmetry community.

This issue reflects the breadth of contemporary symmetry research, ranging from psychology and rehabilitation studies to genetics, information theory, signal processing, and ethnomathematics; the contributions illustrate the many ways in which symmetry continues to serve as a unifying principle across disciplines.

The first paper is by Hanoch Livneh and concludes his two-part exploration of symmetry and psychosocial adaptation.

In this second part, the author examines how symmetry, asymmetry, and symmetry breaking can help us understand human responses to trauma, illness, and disability.

Three papers investigate symmetry in genetics and biological information systems from different perspectives.

David Halitsky and Richard Klitzing propose a correspondence between the organization of hydrogen-bond acceptors involved in codon-anticodon interactions and the celebrated E₈ root system. Their work suggests that the standard genetic code may reflect an underlying highly symmetric geometric structure, opening new perspectives on the relationship between mathematics and molecular biology.

I. V. Stepanyan and M. Y. Lednev investigate bioinspired approaches to information processing. Using Hadamard matrices and Walsh functions associated with genetic coding models, they analyse the noise immunity of signal-processing algorithms and demonstrate the potential of DNA-inspired methods for communication technologies and human-machine-environment interfaces.

Jean-Yves Boulay presents a novel reformulation of the genetic code based on twenty amino acids and twenty DNA biplets. Through this compressed representation, the author identifies both symmetrical and asymmetrical organizational patterns that connect molecular biology with number theory, set theory, and fractal concepts. The resulting framework offers a fresh perspective on the structural logic underlying genetic information.

The final contribution, by Ryan V. Dio, Ritzelda A. Deri, and Christine H. Ferolino, explores the mathematical knowledge embedded in a traditional weaving practice from the Philippines. Through ethnographic investigation, the authors reveal how artisans employ reflection, translation, repetition, tessellation, and other geometric transformations in the creation of decorative patterns. It is a beautiful demonstration of how the cultural practices can provide a context for teaching geometry and symmetry while preserving local heritage and traditional knowledge.

Together, these contributions illustrate how symmetry continues to provide a common language across fields ranging from psychology and biology to information science and cultural heritage. We thank all authors, reviewers, and readers for their continued support and look forward to meeting many members of our community during the preparations for the Symmetry Festival 2027.