Is symmetry discovered?

In direct response to the question that we asked on our very first blog post (whether science is created or discovered), Dr. Sool Cho commented that, 

"Antoine-Laurent de Lavoisier contributed a lot whether it is descovered or created..discovered is closer to answer in my opinion."

To re-cap, we defined in our second post the words "discovery" and "creation" as the following:

Discover: gain sight or knowledge of (something previously unseen or unknown)

Create: to cause to come into being, as something unique that would not naturally evolve or that is not made by ordinary processes.

With regards to symmetry, Dr. Cho's argument makes a lot of sense! After all, our minds are programmed to  try to find and form patterns and symmetries in our lives! So it's no wonder that we have "found" so many symmetric objects and molecules.
Also, when we talked about quasicrystals, for example, we explained how, although we were "sure" that such crystals could not exist at first, the revolutionary crystals were eventually discovered in nature! Such symmetry had existed before we as humans even existed. 

    

(icosahedrite, Al63Cu24Fe13)

However, it can also be argued that Dan Shechtman and his team had first synthesized the molecule, way before a natural example was found! So would that make the concept of quasicrystals a creation?

Similarly, as we discussed a bit before, the formation of 2,3,7,8 TCDD was also a human-made creation! 

(2,3,7,8-tetrachloro-dibenzo-p-dioxin, or 2,3,7,8 TCDD)

The symmetric and toxic chemical was actually a by-product of another synthesis reaction, meaning that we created the beast ourselves...

However, it's just as important to note that this was an accident-- meaning that the creation wasn't intentional! So wouldn't it make sense that this symmetric molecule was rather discovered by chance, than created? Wouldn't that be much more probable?

The fact of the matter is, disappointingly, with only the facts present here, it's not definitive whether symmetry is discovered or created! 

Nonetheless, thank you, Dr. Cho, for your input! We appreciate you reading our blog, and we hope you enjoy and continue reading!