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The Visioneers
by W. Patrick MccrayIn 1969, Princeton physicist Gerard O'Neill began looking outward to space colonies as the new frontier for humanity's expansion. A decade later, Eric Drexler, an MIT-trained engineer, turned his attention to the molecular world as the place where society's future needs could be met using self-replicating nanoscale machines. These modern utopians predicted that their technologies could transform society as humans mastered the ability to create new worlds, undertook atomic-scale engineering, and, if truly successful, overcame their own biological limits. The Visioneers tells the story of how these scientists and the communities they fostered imagined, designed, and popularized speculative technologies such as space colonies and nanotechnologies. Patrick McCray traces how these visioneers blended countercultural ideals with hard science, entrepreneurship, libertarianism, and unbridled optimism about the future. He shows how they built networks that communicated their ideas to writers, politicians, and corporate leaders. But the visioneers were not immune to failure--or to the lures of profit, celebrity, and hype. O'Neill and Drexler faced difficulty funding their work and overcoming colleagues' skepticism, and saw their ideas co-opted and transformed by Timothy Leary, the scriptwriters of Star Trek, and many others. Ultimately, both men struggled to overcome stigma and ostracism as they tried to unshackle their visioneering from pejorative labels like "fringe" and "pseudoscience." The Visioneers provides a balanced look at the successes and pitfalls they encountered. The book exposes the dangers of promotion--oversimplification, misuse, and misunderstanding--that can plague exploratory science. But above all, it highlights the importance of radical new ideas that inspire us to support cutting-edge research into tomorrow's technologies.
Visions
by Michio KakuIn Visions, physicist and author Michio Kaku examines the great scientific revolutions that have dramatically reshaped the twentieth century--the quantum mechanics, biogenetics, and artificial intelligence--and shows how they will change and alter science and the way we live.The next century will witness more far-reaching scientific revolutions, as we make the transition from unraveling the secrets of nature to becoming masters of nature. We will no longer be passive bystanders to the dance of the universe, but will become creative choreographers of matter, life, and intelligence.The first section of Visions presents a shocking look at a cyber-world infiltrated by millions of tiny intelligence systems. Part two illustrates how the decoding of DNA's genetic structure will allow humans the "godlike ability to manipulate life almost at will." Finally, VISIONS focuses on the future of quantum physics, in which physicists will perfect new ways to manipulate matter and harness the cosmic energy of the universe.What makes Michio Kaku's vision of the science of the future so compelling--and so different from the mere forecasts of most thinkers--is that it is based on the groundbreaking research taking place in labs today, as well as the consensus of over 150 of Kaku's scientific colleagues. Science, for all its breathtaking change, evolves slowly; we can accurately predict, asserts Kaku, what the direction of science will be, based on the paths that are being forged today.A thrilling, unique narrative that brings together the thinking of many of the world's most accomplished scientists to explore the world of the future, Visions is science writing at its best.From the Trade Paperback edition.
Visions and Strategies for a Sustainable Economy: Theoretical and Policy Alternatives (Global Institute for Sustainable Prosperity)
by Nikolaos Karagiannis John E. KingThe multidisciplinary edited book Visions and Strategies for a Sustainable Economy: Theoretical and Policy Alternatives provides a thorough examination – at the theoretical and, especially, policy levels – of a number of key topics related to a sustainable economy and a better society. With important contributions by distinguished academics, the book presents alternative views, provides an assessment of contemporary realities in an era of ecological emergency, and offers visions, strategies, and realistic policies towards a better economy and society while paying special attention to a “green new deal” for different areas.
Visions and Voice-Hearing in Medieval and Early Modern Contexts (Palgrave Studies in Literature, Science and Medicine)
by Hilary Powell Corinne SaundersThis book examines how the experiences of hearing voices and seeing visions were understood within the cultural, literary, and intellectual contexts of the medieval and early modern periods. In the Middle Ages, these experiences were interpreted according to frameworks that could credit visionaries or voice-hearers with spiritual knowledge, and allow them to inhabit social roles that were as much desired as feared. Voice-hearing and visionary experience offered powerful creative possibilities in imaginative literature and were often central to the writing of inner, spiritual lives. Ideas about such experience were taken up and reshaped in response to the cultural shifts of the early modern period. These essays, which consider the period 1100 to 1700, offer diverse new insights into a complex, controversial, and contested category of human experience, exploring literary and spiritual works as illuminated by scientific and medical writings, natural philosophy and theology, and the visual arts. In extending and challenging contemporary bio-medical perspectives through the insights and methodologies of the arts and humanities, the volume offers a timely intervention within the wider project of the medical humanities. Chapters 2 and 5 are available open access under a Creative Commons Attribution 4.0 International License via link.springer.com.
Visions of Cell Biology: Reflections Inspired by Cowdry's "General Cytology"
by Manfred D. LaubichlerAlthough modern cell biology is often considered to have arisen following World War II in tandem with certain technological and methodological advances—in particular, the electron microscope and cell fractionation—its origins actually date to the 1830s and the development of cytology, the scientific study of cells. By 1924, with the publication of Edmund Vincent Cowdry’s General Cytology, the discipline had stretched beyond the bounds of purely microscopic observation to include the chemical, physical, and genetic analysis of cells. Inspired by Cowdry’s classic, watershed work, this book collects contributions from cell biologists, historians, and philosophers of science to explore the history and current status of cell biology. Despite extraordinary advances in describing both the structure and function of cells, cell biology tends to be overshadowed by molecular biology, a field that developed contemporaneously. This book remedies that unjust disparity through an investigation of cell biology’s evolution and its role in pushing forward the boundaries of biological understanding. Contributors show that modern concepts of cell organization, mechanistic explanations, epigenetics, molecular thinking, and even computational approaches all can be placed on the continuum of cell studies from cytology to cell biology and beyond. The first book in the series Convening Science: Discovery at the Marine Biological Laboratory, Visions of Cell Biology sheds new light on a century of cellular discovery.
Visions of DNA Nanotechnology at 40 for the Next 40: A Tribute to Nadrian C. Seeman (Natural Computing Series)
by Nataša Jonoska Erik WinfreeThis open access book provides a unique and state-of-the-art view on DNA nanotechnology with an eye toward future developments. Intended as a tribute to Nadrian C. Seeman, who founded the field of DNA nanotechnology, the content is an exciting mixture of technical and non-technical material, reviews, tutorials, perspectives, new findings, and open questions. The book aims to inspire current researchers to sit back and think about the big picture, while also enticing new researchers to enter the field. Most of all, the book captures voices from a unique moment in time: 40 years after the publication of the first paper that envisioned DNA nanotechnology.From this vantage point, what are the untold stories, the unspoken concerns, the underlying fundamental issues, the overlooked opportunities, and the unifying grand challenges? What will help us see more clearly, see more creatively, or see farther? What is transpiring right now that could pave the way for the future? To address these questions, leading researchers have contributed 22 chapters, grouped into five sections: perspectives, chemistry and physics, structures, biochemical circuits, and spatial systems.This book will be an important reference point in the field of DNA nanotechnology, both for established researchers looking to take stock of the field and its future, and for newcomers such as graduate students and researchers in other fields who are beginning to appreciate the power and applicability of its methods.
Visions of Energy Futures: Imagining and Innovating Low-Carbon Transitions (Routledge Studies in Energy Transitions)
by Benjamin K. SovacoolThis book examines the visions, fantasies, frames, discourses, imaginaries, and expectations associated with six state-of-the-art energy systems—nuclear power, hydrogen fuel cells, shale gas, clean coal, smart meters, and electric vehicles—playing a key role in current deliberations about low-carbon energy supply and use. Visions of Energy Futures: Imagining and Innovating Low-Carbon Transitions unveils what the future of energy systems could look like, and how their meanings are produced, often alongside moments of contestation. Theoretically, it analyzes these technological case studies with emerging concepts from various disciplines: utopianism (history of technology), symbolic convergence (communication studies), technological frames (social construction of technology), discursive coalitions (discourse analysis and linguistics), sociotechnical imaginaries (science and technology studies), and the sociology of expectations (innovation studies, future studies). It draws from these cases to create a synthetic set of dichotomies and frameworks for energy futures based on original data collected across two global epistemic communities— nuclear physicists and hydrogen engineers—and experts in Eastern Europe and the Nordic region, stakeholders in South Africa, and newspapers in the United Kingdom. This book is motivated by the premise that tackling climate change via low-carbon energy systems and practices is one of the most significant challenges of the twenty-first century, and that success will require not only new energy technologies, but also new ways of understanding language, visions, and discursive politics. The discursive creation of the energy systems of tomorrow are propagated in polity, hoping to be realized as the material fact of the future, but processed in conflicting ways with underlying tensions as to how contemporary societies ought to be ordered. This book will be essential reading for students and scholars of energy policy, energy and environment, and technology assessment.
Visions of Infinity: The Great Mathematical Problems
by Ian StewartIt is one of the wonders of mathematics that, for every problem mathematicians solve, another awaits to perplex and galvanize them. Some of these problems are new, while others have puzzled and bewitched thinkers across the ages. <P><P>Such challenges offer a tantalizing glimpse of the field's unlimited potential, and keep mathematicians looking toward the horizons of intellectual possibility. In Visions of Infinity, celebrated mathematician Ian Stewart provides a fascinating overview of the most formidable problems mathematicians have vanquished, and those that vex them still. He explains why these problems exist, what drives mathematicians to solve them, and why their efforts matter in the context of science as a whole. The three-century effort to prove Fermat's last theorem-first posited in 1630, and finally solved by Andrew Wiles in 1995-led to the creation of algebraic number theory and complex analysis. The Poincaré conjecture, which was cracked in 2002 by the eccentric genius Grigori Perelman, has become fundamental to mathematicians' understanding of three-dimensional shapes. But while mathematicians have made enormous advances in recent years, some problems continue to baffle us. Indeed, the Riemann hypothesis, which Stewart refers to as the "Holy Grail of pure mathematics," and the P/NP problem, which straddles mathematics and computer science, could easily remain unproved for another hundred years. An approachable and illuminating history of mathematics as told through fourteen of its greatest problems, Visions of Infinity reveals how mathematicians the world over are rising to the challenges set by their predecessors-and how the enigmas of the past inevitably surrender to the powerful techniques of the present.
Visions of Lost Worlds: The Paleoart of Jay Matternes
by Matthew T. Carrano Kirk R. JohnsonA lavish showcase of paleoartist Jay Matternes's spectacular murals and sketchesFor half a century, the artwork of Jay Matternes adorned the fossil halls of the Smithsonian National Museum of Natural History. These treasured Matternes murals documenting mammal evolution over the past 56 million years and dioramas showing dinosaurs from the Mesozoic Era are significant works of one of the most influential paleoartists in history. Simultaneously epic in size and scope and minutely detailed, they also provide a window into the study and interpretation of vertebrate paleontology and paleoecology. Visions of Lost Worlds presents these unparalleled works of art, and also includes the sketches and drawings Matternes prepared as he planned the murals. Known for his technical genius and eye for detail, Matternes sketched from skeletons in museum collections and added muscle, skin, and fur to bring mammals and dinosaurs from prehistory to vivid life. This book offers a close look at these works of art, a peek inside the artist's process, and an examination of the works' impact and legacy.
Visions of Science: Books and Readers at the Dawn of the Victorian Age
by James A. SecordThe first half of the nineteenth century witnessed an extraordinary transformation in British political, literary, and intellectual life. There was widespread social unrest, and debates raged regarding education, the lives of the working class, and the new industrial, machine-governed world. At the same time, modern science emerged in Europe in more or less its current form, as new disciplines and revolutionary concepts, including evolution and the vastness of geologic time, began to take shape. In Visions of Science, James A. Secord offers a new way to capture this unique moment of change. He explores seven key books--among them Charles Babbage’s Reflections on the Decline of Science, Charles Lyell’s Principles ofGeology, Mary Somerville’s Connexion of the Physical Sciences, and Thomas Carlyle’s Sartor Resartus--and shows how literature that reflects on the wider meaning of science can be revelatory when granted the kind of close reading usually reserved for fiction and poetry. These books considered the meanings of science and its place in modern life, looking to the future, coordinating and connecting the sciences, and forging knowledge that would be appropriate for the new age. Their aim was often philosophical, but Secord shows it was just as often imaginative, projective, and practical: to suggest not only how to think about the natural world but also to indicate modes of action and potential consequences in an era of unparalleled change. Visions of Science opens our eyes to how genteel ladies, working men, and the literary elite responded to these remarkable works. It reveals the importance of understanding the physical qualities of books and the key role of printers and publishers, from factories pouring out cheap compendia to fashionable publishing houses in London’s West End. Secord’s vivid account takes us to the heart of an information revolution that was to have profound consequences for the making of the modern world.
Visions Of Technology: A Century Of Vital Debate About Machines Systems A
by Richard RhodesTechnology was the blessing and the bane of the twentieth century. Human life span nearly doubled in the West, but in no century were more human beings killed by new technologies of war. Improvements in agriculture now feed increasing billions, but pesticides and chemicals threaten to poison the earth. Does technology improve us or diminish us? Enslave us or make us free? With this first-ever collection of the essential twentieth-century writings on technology, Pulitzer Prize-winning historian Richard Rhodes explores the optimism, ambivalence, and wrongheaded judgments with which Americans have faced an ever-shifting world.Visions of Technology collects writings on events from the Great Exposition of 1900 and the invention of the telegraph to the advent of genetic counseling and the defeat of Garry Kasparov by IBM's chess-playing computer, Deep Blue. Its gems of opinion and history include Henry Ford on the horseless carriage, Robert Caro on the transformation of New York City, J. Robert Oppenheimer on science and war, Loretta Lynn on the Pill and much more. Together, they chronicle an unprecedented century of change.
Visions of the Multiverse
by Steven ManlyThe idea of a multiple universe reality is no longer considered speculative or implausible by many physicists; rather, it is deemed inescapable. Distinct concepts of the multiverse spring from quantum mechanics, cosmology, string theory-based cosmology, and ideas about a mathematics based reality that borders on the religious.In this accessible and entertaining book, Dr. Manly guides you on a tour of the many multiverse concepts and provides the non-technical background to understand them.Visions of the Multiverse explores questions such as:•Just what is a multiverse?•What are the different concepts of the multiverse and how are they related?•Is it possible to determine if we live in a multiverse…or even in multiple types of multiverses?•How do religious concepts of the afterlife and popular ideas based on the Law of Attraction relate to the scientific visions of the multiverse?Dr. Manly discusses a wide variety of fascinating concepts from relativity and the fundamental particles and forces of nature to dark matter, dark energy, and quantum mechanics in an unintimidating and conversational tone.Is humanity is in the midst of a new Copernican revolution? You decide.
Visit Sunny Chernobyl: And Other Adventures in the World's Most Polluted Places
by Andew BlackwellFor most of us, traveling means visiting the most beautiful places on Earth—Paris, the Taj Mahal, the Grand Canyon. It's rare to book a plane ticket to visit the lifeless moonscape of Canada's oil sand strip mines, or to seek out the Chinese city of Linfen, legendary as the most polluted in the world. But in Visit Sunny Chernobyl, Andrew Blackwell embraces a different kind of travel, taking a jaunt through the most gruesomely polluted places on Earth. From the hidden bars and convenience stores of a radioactive wilderness to the sacred but reeking waters of India, Visit Sunny Chernobyl fuses immersive first-person reporting with satire and analysis, making the case that it's time to start appreciating our planet as it is—not as we wish it would be. Irreverent and reflective, the book is a love letter to our biosphere's most tainted, most degraded ecosystems, and a measured consideration of what they mean for us. Equal parts travelogue, expose, environmental memoir, and faux guidebook, Blackwell careens through a rogue's gallery of environmental disaster areas in search of the worst the world has to offer—and approaches a deeper understanding of what's really happening to our planet in the process.
A Visit to a Space Station: Fantasy Science Field Trips (Fantasy Science Field Trips Ser.)
by Claire ThropBooks in the Fantasy Field Trips series take the reader on field trips to the most unlikely of destinations! In this book, strap yourself in as we prepare to blast off to explore a space station far above the Earth's surface. Our 'tour' includes a look at daily life on board, how astronauts exercise, work and even go to the toilet, and how astronauts and their supplies are transported between Earth and the space station.
Visual Anatomy And Physiology
by Frederic Martini William Ober Judi Nath Edwin Bartholomew Kevin PettiFor courses in Two-Semester A&P. <P><P> Using Art Effectively with the Most Visual Approach to A&P <P><P> Visual Anatomy & Physiology combines a one-of-a-kind visual approach with a modular organization that uniquely meets the needs of today’s students—without sacrificing the comprehensive coverage of A&P topics required for careers in nursing and other allied health professions. <P><P> The 3rd Edition presents key new features based on recent research about how information is used and digested. New modules in the first chapter emphasize how to use art effectively when studying; new Integrated Figure Questions increases the likelihood you will spend time viewing the art and prompts you to consider what you have just learned; and new SmartArt Videos, accessible via QR code in the book,help in navigating key, complex pieces of art on some of the toughest topics. <P><P> New Interactive Physiology 2.0 tutorials, SmartArt Video Activities, and a mobile-friendly eText expand the options for students to use Mastering ™ A&P as an effective practice and learning tool. Also available with Mastering A&P <P><P> Mastering™ A&P is an online homework, tutorial, and assessment program designed to engage students and improve results. Instructors ensure that students arrive ready to learn by assigning educationally effective content before class, and encourage critical thinking and retention with in-class resources such as Learning Catalytics™. Students can further master concepts after class through assignments that provide hints and answer-specific feedback. With a wide range of activities available, students can actively learn, understand, and retain even the most difficult concepts.
Visual Anatomy And Physiology
by Frederic Martini William Ober Judi Nath Edwin Bartholomew Kevin PettiVisual Anatomy & Physiology combines a one-of-a-kind visual approach with a modular organization that uniquely meets the needs of today’s students–without sacrificing the comprehensive coverage of A&P topics required for careers in nursing and other allied health professions. The 3rd Edition presents key new features based on recent research about how students use and digest visual information. New modules in the first chapter emphasize how to use art effectively when studying; new Integrated Figure Questions increases the likelihood that students will spend time viewing the art and prompts them to consider what they have just learned; and new SmartArt Videos, accessible via QR code in the book,help students navigate key, complex pieces of art on some of the toughest topics. New Interactive Physiology 2.0 tutorials, SmartArt Video Activities, and a mobile-friendly eText expand the options for students to use Mastering™ A&P as an effective practice and learning tool.
Visual Anatomy & Physiology Lab Manual, Pig Version
by Stephen SarikasVisual Anatomy & Physiology Lab Manual (Stephen Sarikas) brings all of the strengths of the revolutionary Visual Anatomy & Physiology textbook (Martini/Ober/Nath/Bartholomew/Petti) to the lab. The 2nd Edition builds upon the visual approach and modular organization with new features to better prepare you for lab, maximize yout learning, and reinforce important concepts. With an emphasis on clear, easy to follow figures (from the Martini Visual A&P text),frequent practice, and helping you make connections, the manual provides you with the powerful tools you need to excel. <P><P>The two-page lab activity modules seamlessly integrate text and visuals to guide you through lab activities—with no page flipping. Lab practice consists of hands-on activities and assignable content in Mastering ™ A&P, including new pre-lab quizzes, Review Sheets, and virtual lab study tools.
A Visual Astronomer's Photographic Guide to the Deep Sky: A Pocket Field Guide (Astronomer's Pocket Field Guide)
by Stefan RumistrzewiczThis book is meant for observers who see a deep-sky object - either by star-hopping or by using a Go-To telescope - but do not observe it in detail because they don't know what to look for. It provides photographic images of all the objects discussed... not just images, but images that look exactly like the visual view through the eyepiece of telescopes of various apertures. Visually, deep-sky objects almost always look quite unlike the usual CCD images published in astronomical guides. The human eye doesn't see color at such low light levels, and the contrast of extended objects (such as nebulae and galaxies) is completely different. The author lives in a less-than ideal location for visual observing, with the city of London only about twenty miles to the south. He uses this to advantage, and amateur astronomers will find this book invaluable because it shows them what they will actually see from a typical suburban location, not a rare view under perfect skies.
Visual Astronomy with a Small Telescope
by Sean G. RyanThis is a practical guide to using a small astronomical telescope of a size that corresponds to most “first” telescopes – around 75-150 mm, i.e. 3-6 inches, in diameter.Visual Astronomy with a Small Telescope is for people who are sufficiently interested in astronomy to have purchased a small telescope or received one as a gift, but who are still developing experience of using one. They may have looked at the Moon and major planets and be wondering, “What's next?” There are many books catering for casual star-gazing and many more advanced books dealing with astrophotography and astrophysics, but this is for someone who has acquired their first telescope or soon will and wants to make the most of it.It explains how the optics of the telescope function, so the reader understands what their telescope can do and how eyepieces should be selected and used depending on the type of object being observed. It details different types of astronomical objects, their astrophysical significance, and how to observe them. It contains 43 detailed, clear charts and describes 380 objects suitable for visual observation with a small telescope and explains how to locate them without needing a computer-controlled telescope. It will help readers make the most of their telescopes to successfully observe the Universe and kick-start a life-long interest in star-gazing.• Presents essential information on optics, astronomy and astrophysics for anyone with a small telescope. • Contains 43 detailed charts, based on the constellations and showing stars down to magnitude 8.5, and identifies 380 objects suitable for visual observation with a small telescope. • Written by a Professor of Astrophysics with experience as both an amateur astronomer and a professional observational astronomer using telescopes at both small and major observatories around the world.
Visual Communication for Cybersecurity: Beyond Awareness to Advocacy
by Nicole van DeursenCybersecurity needs a change in communication. It is time to show the world that cybersecurity is an exciting and diverse field to work in. Cybersecurity is not only about hackers and technical gobbledygook. It is a diverse field of work with a lot of collaboration with other disciplines. Over the years, security professionals have tried different awareness strategies to promote their work and to improve the knowledge of their audience but without much success. Communication problems are holding back advances in in the field.Visual Communication for Cybersecurity explores the possibilities of visual communication as a tool to improve the communication about cybersecurity and to better connect with non-experts. Visual communication is useful to explain complex topics and to solve complex problems. Visual tools are easy to share through social media and have the possibility to reach a wide audience. When applied strategically, visual communication can contribute to a people-centric approach to security, where employees are encouraged to actively engage in security activities rather than simply complying with the policies.Cybersecurity education does not usually include communication theory or creative skills. Many experts think that it is not part of their job and is best left to the communication department or they think that they lack any creative talent. This book introduces communication theories and models, gives practical tips, and shows many examples. The book can support students in cybersecurity education and professionals searching for alternatives to bullet-point presentations and textual reports. On top of that, if this book succeeds in inspiring the reader to start creating visuals, it may also give the reader the pleasure of seeing new possibilities and improving their performance.
Visual Culture and Mathematics in the Early Modern Period (Visual Culture in Early Modernity)
by Ingrid Alexander-SkipnesDuring the early modern period there was a natural correspondence between how artists might benefit from the knowledge of mathematics and how mathematicians might explore, through advances in the study of visual culture, new areas of enquiry that would uncover the mysteries of the visible world. This volume makes its contribution by offering new interdisciplinary approaches that not only investigate perspective but also examine how mathematics enriched aesthetic theory and the human mind. The contributors explore the portrayal of mathematical activity and mathematicians as well as their ideas and instruments, how artists displayed their mathematical skills and the choices visual artists made between geometry and arithmetic, as well as Euclid’s impact on drawing, artistic practice and theory. These chapters cover a broad geographical area that includes Italy, Switzerland, Germany, the Netherlands, France and England. The artists, philosophers and mathematicians whose work is discussed include Leon Battista Alberti, Nicholas Cusanus, Marsilio Ficino, Francesco di Giorgio, Leonardo da Vinci and Andrea del Verrocchio, as well as Michelangelo, Galileo, Piero della Francesca, Girard Desargues, William Hogarth, Albrecht Dürer, Luca Pacioli and Raphael.
Visual Ecology
by Sönke Johnsen Thomas W. Cronin Eric J. Warrant N. Justin MarshallVisual ecology is the study of how animals use visual systems to meet their ecological needs, how these systems have evolved, and how they are specialized for particular visual tasks. Visual Ecology provides the first up-to-date synthesis of the field to appear in more than three decades. Featuring some 225 illustrations, including more than 140 in color, spread throughout the text, this comprehensive and accessible book begins by discussing the basic properties of light and the optical environment. It then looks at how photoreceptors intercept light and convert it to usable biological signals, how the pigments and cells of vision vary among animals, and how the properties of these components affect a given receptor's sensitivity to light. The book goes on to examine how eyes and photoreceptors become specialized for an array of visual tasks, such as navigation, evading prey, mate choice, and communication.A timely and much-needed resource for students and researchers alike, Visual Ecology also includes a glossary and a wealth of examples drawn from the full diversity of visual systems.The most up-to-date overview of visual ecology availableFeatures some 225 illustrations, including more than 140 in color, spread throughout the textGuides readers from the basic physics of light to the role of visual systems in animal behaviorIncludes a glossary and a wealth of real-world examplesSome images inside the book are unavailable due to digital copyright restrictions.
The Visual Elements—Design: A Handbook for Communicating Science and Engineering (The Visual Elements)
by Felice C. FrankelWith insights and examples from designers at publications from Nature to the New York Times, an essential guide to creating figures and presentations. In this short handbook, award-winning science communicator Felice C. Frankel offers a quick guide for scientists and engineers who want to share—and better understand—their research by designing compelling graphics for journal submissions, grant applications, presentations, and posters. Like all the books in the Visual Elements series, this handbook is also a training tool for researchers. Distilling her celebrated books and courses to the essentials, Frankel shows scientists and engineers, from students to primary investigators, the importance of thinking visually. This crucial volume in the Visual Elements series offers a wealth of engaging design examples. Case studies and advice from designers at prestigious publications and researchers’ own before-and-after examples show how even the smallest changes—to color, type, composition, and layering—can greatly improve communication. Ideal for researchers who want a foothold for presenting and preparing their work for everything from conferences to publications, the book explains the steps for creating a concise and communicative graphic to highlight the most important aspects of research—and to clarify researchers’ own thinking. The resulting book is an essential element of any scientist’s, engineer’s, or designer’s library.
The Visual Elements—Photography: A Handbook for Communicating Science and Engineering (The Visual Elements)
by Felice C. FrankelFor novice or pro, primary investigator or postdoc, the essentials for photographing science and technology for journals, grant applications, and public understanding. Award-winning photographer Felice C. Frankel, whose work has graced the covers of Science, Nature,and Scientific American, among other publications, offers a quick guide for scientists and engineers who want to communicate—and better understand—their research by creating compelling photographs. Like all the books in the Visual Elements series, this short guide uses engaging examples to train researchers to learn visual communication. Distilling her celebrated books and courses to the essentials, Frankel shows scientists and engineers the importance of thinking visually. When she creates stunning images of scientific phenomena, she is not only interested in helping researchers to convey understanding to others in their research community or to gain media attention, but also in making these experts themselves “look longer” to understand more fully. Ideal for researchers who want a foothold for presenting and preparing their work for conferences, journal publications, and funding agencies, the book explains four tools that all readers can use—a phone, a camera, a scanner, and a microscope—and then offers important advice on composition and image manipulation ethics. The Visual Elements—Photography is an essential element in any scientist’s, engineer’s, or photographer’s library.
Visual Lunar and Planetary Astronomy
by Paul G. AbelWith the advent of CCDs and webcams, the focus of amateur astronomy has to some extent shifted from science to art. The object of many amateur astronomers is now to produce "stunning images" that, although beautiful, are not intended to have scientific merit. Paul Abel has been addressing this issue by promoting visual astronomy wherever possible - at talks to astronomical societies, in articles for popular science magazines, and on BBC TV's The Sky at Night. Visual Lunar and Planetary Astronomy is a comprehensive modern treatment of visual lunar and planetary astronomy, showing that even in the age of space telescopes and interplanetary probes it is still possible to contribute scientifically with no more than a moderately-priced commercially made astronomical telescope. It is believed that imaging and photography is somehow more objective and more accurate than the eye, and this has led to a peculiar "crisis of faith" in the human visual system and its amazing processing power. But by analyzing observations from the past, we can see how accurate visual astronomy really is! Measuring the rotational period of Mars and making accurate lunar charts for American astronauts were all done by eye. The book includes sections on how the human visual system works, how to view an object through an eyepiece, and how to record observations and keep a scientific notebook. The book also looks at how to make an astronomical, rather than an artistic, drawing. Finally, everything here will also be of interest to those imagers who wish to make their images more scientifically applicable by combining the methods and practices of visual astronomy with imaging.