Seeing Science: An Illustrated Guide to the Wonders of the Universe

by Iris Gottlieb

Science is beautiful. With original illustrations that deftly explain the strange-but-true world of science, Seeing Science brings the wonderful world of science to life in a quirky, indie style. Artist and lay scientist Iris Gottlieb explains the great mysteries of the universe, such neap tides, naked mole rats, whale falls, the human heart, the Uncertainty Principle, the ten dimensions of string theory, and how glaciers are like Snickers bars. Gottlieb's quirky visual metaphors and concise factual explanations provide just the right amount of information to stoke the curious mind with a desire to know more about the life forces that animate both the smallest cell and the biggest black hole.

Art and science come together to help readers explore the wonders of the universe.

• Colorful, hand-drawn illustrations in a fun, quirky style
• Covers a variety of scientific topics--from biology and astronomy to chemistry
• Features metaphors and facts to give readers a range of scientific information

Those who like Wonders of the Universe (Wonders Series) and Atlas of Human Anatomy (Netter Basic Science) will love this book.

• Fun gift for fans of Pop culture and pop science
• Trivia buffs will love this book
• Great for kids and adults alike

Genres: Nonfiction, Science, Graphic Novels, Picture Books, Art

152 pages, Hardcover

First published January 1, 2018

Reviews

[Shorouk A · Rating 4 out of 5]

This is an interesting book.I loved it .It was useful and entertaining at the same time . After less than a quarter of the book, I started to google the mentioned creatures and other stuff. I think that added more to my benefit.
The illustrations were so good . They could make it easy even if a kid saw them. It wasn't a five star because if you had no knowledge at all of the thing the author mentioned, you will need to search by yourself .The book is just widening the range of the topics that you may find enjoyable.

[Lauren Schnoebelen · Rating 3 out of 5]

Science consists of a wide variety of topics and details that can be overwhelming to those new to it. In an animated format, the author helps to break down the walls and introduces a few fun parts of the world of science to readers. Filled with colorful diagrams, fun facts, and bits of science, this graphic novel opens the doors to all future scientists whether they know it or not.

I had some high hopes for this but I ended up reading this in ebook format. Sadly, the style of the book was not set up well to make it easy to read. There were a lot of editorial and graphical choices made that could have been handled better. My biggest complaint would probably be the font which made things hard to tell read. I would get confused reading a sentence only to realize that in fact it was two sentences and the period was several words ago. The font also made the words clump together in many of the diagrams (which also were not adapted to ebook format so you can’t actually read half of what was said. This was sad because I couldn’t actually make out what the majority of the diagrams said and had to skip them). I did enjoy some of the facts in here which were new to me and they provided great opportunities for conversation with my boyfriend. What’s frustrating though is that what was advertised was not what was given. I thought it was going to break down the different parts of science but I only got some of that and then half the book was fun science facts. Overall idk if the book hit the mark it was after.

[Isaac Bouyack · Rating 2 out of 5]

Learned some stuff. Pretty poorly organized and all capital letters with small periods was a terrible decision.

[Magda · Rating 1 out of 5]

Totalny chaos, dziecięce definicje obok bardzo skomplikowanych haseł. Właściwie nie wiadomo dla kogo - dziecko nie zrozumie połowy terminów, dorosły się zirytuje na brak podstawowej wiedzy. Poza tym dziwności typu wyjaśnienie teorii strun bez użycia słowa "struna", kawałek o wymiarach bez wyjaśnienia, dlaczego z drugiego wymiaru przeskakujemy nagle do 10. Nie przekonują mnie próby wyjaśnienia bardzo skomplikowanych teorii naukowych za pomocą rysunku z dwóch kresek. Zmęczyła mnie także czcionka - tekst jest zapisany kapitalikami i kursywą. Ładnie to wygląda (książka jest bardzo estetyczna), ale fatalnie się czyta.

[Anita · Rating 4 out of 5]

A really lovely book that helps make a variety scientific concepts clear to adults and/or children. I got a copy for myself and one for a friend.

[Kayt O'Bibliophile · Rating 4 out of 5]

A very fun book that provides an overview of a lot of science, science history, and scientific concepts. There isn't a plot--if you try to read this straight through expecting something to tie it all together, you'll be disappointed. I think it works best read in shorter chunks, allowing you to look at all the illustrations and notes without feeling like you have to get through a ton. (My bedtime reading shelf is both literal--this was my pre-bed reading for a while--but these books tend to be ones that are easy to put down, not because they're bad but because they won't keep your heart racing or probably cause you stay up later than you should.)

It's also best read in smaller sections, I think because otherwise you might feel like you're just having a bunch of science thrown at you with no follow-up.

I loved the book. Gottlieb's art is fun, easy to understand but no sterile. One of my favorite section was in the "Life Sciences" section where she illustrations the senses in orbs: pain gets a lot of pointy crystals, while gravity is multi-layered rounded points hanging from the top, like a bunch of shark's teeth, and temperature is like a bunch of waves overlapping with each other. (It reminded me of a college art assignment where I had to illustrate emotions using only lines--hard, but the end result can be amazingly accurate.)

I could see parts of the book being useful or helpful to a person in a class learning about, say, evolution or viruses or tides or vacuums; for me it also worked as a jumping-off point, introducing concepts that, if I choose, I can follow up on with research or other books to get a deeper understanding.

[Sara · Rating 3 out of 5]

The illustrations in this book are phenomenal. Art is five stars.
The content in this book is interesting and engages the reader's curiosity. However, I kept expecting all the knowledge to come together, and I never felt like it did. Content is four stars.
The font you have to read is whimsical, beautiful, and extremely difficult to read. Font is two stars.
If you're looking for a coffee-table book or scientific art, this is your book.

[Alice · Rating 2 out of 5]

Additional star for fun illustrations - other than that, I didn't see any point in this disjointed book.

[Sophia Gourgiotis · Rating 3 out of 5]

The visuals and humor are the primary reason I continued reading and why I gave the book 3 stars.

The book prefaces itself as an easy-to-understand visual guide to the wonders of the universe. While this may be true I would argue that readers must have basic knowledge of various scientific terms to truly understand.

The chapter on physics and the universe for example used a lot of scientific terms. If a reader doesn’t understand what a “proton” or “neutron” are then they aren’t going to understand molecules and their purpose (it’s me, I’m the reader). I haven’t been in a science class in a good decade (almost two). I’m rusty on these topics and now I’m feeling dumber 🤣

It felt too surface level. For instance the book discusses how there is 10-dimension theory but didn’t truly explain the “why” or how this is crucial to our scientific discoveries or thought process.

Maybe I’m not the best audience for the book but it’s okay. The pictures were cute.

[Jordy Madueño · Rating 1 out of 5]

What happened here?

As another layman scientist, I was surprised how short this book was with such little content. I like the illustration style but it mixed science, humor, and abstraction. It was unsatisfying because it didn't provide value and the topics were very shortly looked at. By the way, the topics didn't follow a pattern, it was chaotic. I’m sorry but I cannot recommend it. Why did Iris use caps for the paragraphs? That was visually tiring. I had high hopes for it, I even made a series review but after the 5th topic, you could see this awful pattern so I decided to read it all right away to end it fast and move to the next book.

[Colleen Villasenor · Rating 3 out of 5]

This book was interesting. It seemed to me to be a lot of random science facts and concepts with illustrations without a lot of organization. I found some of the illustrations to be confusing. There were little bits of humor interjected that I found amusing, although I found myself wondering if it would be confusing to someone not familiar with the science. Some of the illustrations I found to be really helpful and I wish I had had access to them when I taught middle school science. I really liked the dimensions of the string theory explanation at the end of the book. I think it could be helpful to someone learning about it for the first time.

[Alicia · Rating 2 out of 5]

It's an awkward premise in that it's illustrations and humor about the awesomeness of science that (when paying attention) is fun. It showcases reality and maybe even explains random, difficult content, but the presentation of the information isn't in a storytelling format nor is it bullets, lists, or images with descriptions but a combination of a few hodge-podge ramblings of an enthused armchair scientist.

It's a take it for what it's worth kind of enjoyment of how amazing the world is as a coffee table book. Or a random cool graphic to explain a topic.

[Rebecca Johnson · Rating 4 out of 5]

This tongue in cheek book of science is aimed at teenagers looking for brief introduction and overview of the branches of science and their key theories and components. Presented in the form of a series of extended illustrated facts, Gottlieb revels in the beautiful of the scientific word. Brimming with witty metaphors and quirky analogies, this book is a fantastic read for the scientifically curious.

[Dakota Morgan · Rating 3 out of 5]

Seeing Science is an amicable, somewhat scatter-brained collection of scientific facts and theories. Everything is in here, from how a dead whale forms an ecosystem on the sea floor to an extended explanation of string theory. The leaps between topics can seem random, and despite the author's note that she is not a scientist, some of the topics go way too far into the weeds. Still, it's generally interesting, well worth a perusal.

[Carla]

I'm always interested in seeing visual educational books. This one was not well formatted, at least not in the digital version. It might look different its physical form. This is less of a guide and more of a collection of entirely random science information that has no clear organization pattern. There's lots of explanation and not as many illustrations as I imagined based on the title. It might be a bit tough for kids to access.

[Jason Freng · Rating 3 out of 5]

Some utterly confusing illustrations (Snickers glacier) mixed in with some mind blowing facts (trees grow out of "thin air" because they use the carbon from CO2 to construct organic material). I of course wish that the explanations were more thorough so that I didn't have to do so much outside research to understand things like magnetic poles reversing and neap tides, but it's okay for what it is most of the book.

[Zoom · Rating 4 out of 5]

This is an illustrated explanation of random science concepts. A unique compendium, and a novel approach, with bite-sized snippets of information . For me it worked as a bit of a springboard into more research on the subjects that grabbed my attention. (In my case: naked mole rats, bower birds, animal instincts, whale falls, string theory and carbon dating.)

I DIDN'T GIVE IT 5 STARS BECAUSE THE ALL-CAPS BODY FONT IS REALLY HARD TO READ.

[Ranya · Rating 4 out of 5]

I enjoyed the book. I like science and this book gave info on multiple branches and topics. If you already studied a bit of science, info in this book might be redundant for you but it’s still well explained with nice illustrations!
If you have kids or nieces/nephews you’d like to introduce to physics/chemistry/biology/astronomy and the likes, then this is the book for you.

[Paula ~♡ · Rating 3 out of 5]

Me parece que tiene cosas muy basicas y luego tiene cosas mas avanzadas que no explica lo suficiente como para que una persona que no sepa de ciencia lo entienda bien, pero las ilustraciones están guays y es bastante ameno. Obvio que para alguien que sepa de ciencia se queda corto (como es mi caso), pero de introducción para gente que no sepa está bien

[Susan · Rating 5 out of 5]

SO SO COOL! Funny and factual and beautifully done, a broad overview of a bunch of different disciplines of science and a bunch of fun and interesting facts. A great book to leave on the coffee table to spark interest....or maybe in the bathroom, ha. You could page through this aimlessly and read something that caught your attention every time. Definitely recommended.

[Gv · Rating 3 out of 5]

Cool illustration, humour, fun facts! I enjoyed reading it, even if I was also frustrated because so many topics were just broached very shortly. But it made me want to research more things, so... it may be a good thing.

[Beth · Rating 5 out of 5]

As a science major, I’d say this book describes all of the basic elements (chemistry, physics, biology, etc) of science in such a beautiful and amazing way. Super fun to look at, and even gives a whole new perspective to things...I loved it!!

[Dhwani · Rating 5 out of 5]

As someone who enjoy reading about new things and that too in Science, I'll definitely recommend this book. It's not a textbook, mind you. It's simply bits and pieces of information to enjoy and know.

[Cathy Casey-Richards · Rating 3 out of 5]

Some really good explanations, along with some very confusing ones. The all-caps format was a bit odd, but the illustrations were enjoyable. This bopped around quickly between different subjects, so it’s definitely more of a broad overview for those interested in various scientific topics.

[Chloe · Rating 4 out of 5]

it was very interesting!! it presented the information in such a cool way and it's very easy to digest. it was really fun to read and encouraged me to look more into some of the topics and add sticky notes tying it in with what i already know <3

[Beth · Rating 5 out of 5]

A wonderfully illustrated succinct introduction(or refresher) to science interjected with humor. Delightful and educational.
Teens and tweens will be into this one too.

[Indah Threez Lestari · Rating 3 out of 5]

21 - 2019

[Jessica · Rating 4 out of 5]

Loved the illustrations! Only whetted my appetite for more.

[Jan · Rating 3 out of 5]

Sadly, I still don't get string theory. 😁 A short hand review of important scientific concepts.

[Nicole Fairbairn · Rating 5 out of 5]

Very cute book. Super fun for all ages.