Felice Frankel

Chemistry is a beautiful subject. Beyond the intellectual satisfaction of finding out how things work, there is also aesthetic reward in an optically-active crystal viewed in polarized light, a colorful reaction, or even scientific glassware. We "see" molecules only in the mind's eye, but supramolecular chemistry and nanotechnology are beginning to fill the gap between molecules too small to view optically and the macroscopic world. Much of what is found in that realm is almost incredibly beautiful, when viewed through modern microscopes. Photographer Felice Frankel collaborated with materials scientist George Whitesides to produce this very attractive volume of photographs that would enhance anyone's coffee table. However, I was disappointed to find the subtitle to be an unfulfilled promise. There is very little science here, and also only a sprinkling of nanoscale.… (altro)

This book features lots of very close-up photographs of scientifically interesting things such as ice crystals, opals, drops of water, yeast cells, and various bits of micro-technology. Each photo is accompanied by a few paragraphs of text. The writing is rather poetic, and features some fairly good metaphors for various scientific concepts, but I have to say, I found it rather frustrating, as I would much rather have had a much more plain and clear explanation of exactly what I was looking at. It's definitely a "science for artistic types" kind of book, whereas I'm the kind of person who's more likely to need art books written for scientific types.… (altro)