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Seeing Science: The Art of Making the Invisible Visible
The power of images to represent the stunning visualizations of science, from the microscopic to the incredibly vast.
We live among patterns of delicate beauty and exquisite chaos that our eyes can’t detect; we are surrounded by invisible particles and shifting fields of matter that permeate all of space. Our very cells are intricate molecular machines, and the story of our origins stretches back through an unimaginable amount of time. How can we see the richness of what lies beyond our sensory perception? Scientists have developed visualization tools that can make the invisible visible. This bountifully illustrated book demonstrates the power of images to represent the unseeable, offering stunning visualizations of science that range from the microscopic to the incredibly vast.
With more than 200 color images and an engaging text by leading science writer Jack Challoner, Seeing Science explains and illustrates the techniques by which scientists create visualizations of their discoveries. We see the first detection of a black hole as represented by an image from an Xray telescope, get a direct view of DNA through an electron microscope, and much more. Visualizations are also used to make sense of an avalanche of data—concisely presenting information from the 20,000 or so human genes, for example. Scientists represent complex theories in computer models, which take on a curious beauty of their own. And scientists and artists collaborate to create art from science visualizations, with intriguing results.
We live among patterns of delicate beauty and exquisite chaos that our eyes can’t detect; we are surrounded by invisible particles and shifting fields of matter that permeate all of space. Our very cells are intricate molecular machines, and the story of our origins stretches back through an unimaginable amount of time. How can we see the richness of what lies beyond our sensory perception? Scientists have developed visualization tools that can make the invisible visible. This bountifully illustrated book demonstrates the power of images to represent the unseeable, offering stunning visualizations of science that range from the microscopic to the incredibly vast.
With more than 200 color images and an engaging text by leading science writer Jack Challoner, Seeing Science explains and illustrates the techniques by which scientists create visualizations of their discoveries. We see the first detection of a black hole as represented by an image from an Xray telescope, get a direct view of DNA through an electron microscope, and much more. Visualizations are also used to make sense of an avalanche of data—concisely presenting information from the 20,000 or so human genes, for example. Scientists represent complex theories in computer models, which take on a curious beauty of their own. And scientists and artists collaborate to create art from science visualizations, with intriguing results.
272 pages, Paperback
Published October 11, 2022
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Displaying 1 - 6 of 6 reviews
October 13, 2022
As Jack Challoner reminds us in the introduction to this beguiling book of scientific images, in 1911, the editor of the New York Evening Journal, Arthur Brisbane, advised advertisers 'Use a picture. It's worth a thousand words.' There's no doubt that scientific discoveries can be made more approachable - and sometimes jaw-dropping - with appropriate imagery.
We're used now, for instance, to seeing wonderful imagery from space telescopes. (Oddly, one of the less impressive pictures here is a Hubble image of part of the Andromeda Galaxy, that just looks like a bit of fuzz with bright lights.) But there is so much more that's possible. The first thing that randomly attracted my attention was a false colour scanning electron microscope image of the Covid virus, but every few pages something leaps out that you want to share with other people.
Accompanying these excellent images is a balanced narrative from Challoner. With a book like this there's a temptation to just stick the images in and leave it at that - let them provide those thousand words for themselves. But Challoner gives us interesting observations without ever going into too much depth (occasionally a problem with his in some ways similar book Water). Whether you want to dip in, or read through sequentially, there's plenty to occupy the mind.
You could argue about things that should have been in there, from Hooke's incredible image of a flea in Micrographia (there is something from that book, but it's much less eye-catching), or Anderson's image of the first detected antimatter particle - but any collection will miss some personal favourites. I could also have done without the artists' impressions and occasional artworks - there's so much wonderful science photography out there that we could have stayed with that. But that's a minor issue. It's also significantly too expensive.
Overall this would make a good gift book - or would function well as that much maligned entity, the loo book. It's a visual treat.
We're used now, for instance, to seeing wonderful imagery from space telescopes. (Oddly, one of the less impressive pictures here is a Hubble image of part of the Andromeda Galaxy, that just looks like a bit of fuzz with bright lights.) But there is so much more that's possible. The first thing that randomly attracted my attention was a false colour scanning electron microscope image of the Covid virus, but every few pages something leaps out that you want to share with other people.
Accompanying these excellent images is a balanced narrative from Challoner. With a book like this there's a temptation to just stick the images in and leave it at that - let them provide those thousand words for themselves. But Challoner gives us interesting observations without ever going into too much depth (occasionally a problem with his in some ways similar book Water). Whether you want to dip in, or read through sequentially, there's plenty to occupy the mind.
You could argue about things that should have been in there, from Hooke's incredible image of a flea in Micrographia (there is something from that book, but it's much less eye-catching), or Anderson's image of the first detected antimatter particle - but any collection will miss some personal favourites. I could also have done without the artists' impressions and occasional artworks - there's so much wonderful science photography out there that we could have stayed with that. But that's a minor issue. It's also significantly too expensive.
Overall this would make a good gift book - or would function well as that much maligned entity, the loo book. It's a visual treat.
April 4, 2023
This is not something you can read quickly if you want to understand the science. I only got half-way through. But I enjoyed what I read.
February 27, 2023
Data visualization has always been a major component of understanding science. This book does a good job of showing both the historic and turning point efforts as well as newer computer based methods. It also serves as a history showing how technology has affected our understanding. Telescopes, microscopes, dying techniques for cells, electron microscopes and computers all played a significant role in this journey.
I had hoped for a little math and behind the scenes stories. I appreciated the chapter on art. a fascinating read, across many disciplines.
I had hoped for a little math and behind the scenes stories. I appreciated the chapter on art. a fascinating read, across many disciplines.
May 30, 2023
For anyone who has been intimidated by science and the grand experiments, this book provides a beautiful visual explanation behind it. Highly recommend it!
May 14, 2024
An intriguing collection of scientific images, ranging from highly technical, mathematically derived data charts to paleoart and even photos from the Kepler space telescope. Some of the sections also showed the changes in art and the way we understand a scientific concept over time, including a couple images showing early models of atoms.
Displaying 1 - 6 of 6 reviews