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Abstract
According to Hermann Weyl and in the words of Richard P. Feynman, an object is symmetric if one can subject it to a certain operation and it appears exactly the same after the operation. This paper generalises this definition of symmetry of objects in space to symmetries of the laws of nature. Consequences of the laws of physics that follow from their symmetries are derived and compared with the experimental evidence. It is pointed out that unobservability is at the root of all symmetries in the natural sciences. Symmetries of the laws of physics can be hidden by asymmetries of realisable states that follow from a lack of symmetry in the ground state of the system. If that is the case, transitions from states that share the symmetries of the laws, to states in the neighbourhood of the ground state that do not, involve symmetry breaking through self-organisation.