From Publishers Weekly
The title's "new geographies" encompass the furthest reaches of the universe and the "landscape of the chromosome," regions made newly visible with such imaging tools as the computer, Voyager 2 satellite and other remote sensors. Most of these new maps are the purest of data images, constructed of information gathered in galactic surveys, from mathematicians' computers and in the laboratories of molecular biologists. In the last 20 years, having developed the means to make its concepts visible and therefore more accessible, science offers maps of a moon of Neptune, the mathematical constant pi and a crooked string of DNA. Hall ( Invisible Frontiers ) is a knowledgeable guide and fluid writer; his introductory and concluding considerations of the map as an extended "tool of thought" are fluent science writing. But the sheer range of the areas he investigates--chaos theory to neurology--may overreach the limits of his theme and the comprehension of many readers. Illustrations not seen by PW.
Copyright 1991 Reed Business Information, Inc.
Copyright 1991 Reed Business Information, Inc.
From Library Journal
In the spirit of John Noble Wilford's The Mapmakers ( LJ 4/15/81) in which he writes "an unmapped discovery is of little value to succeeding generations," this book celebrates the science of high - tech cartography. From maps of the ocean floor to the human genome, science writer Hall discusses, in 18 essays, how the frontiers of science are revealed in their graphic representations. The essays are arranged into four broad categories: "Planetary Landscapes, Ours and Others" "The Animate Landscape," "Probalistic Landscapes, Atomic and Mathematical" and "Astronomical and Cosmological Landscapes." While the individual topics vary, the focus on maps gives the collection a thematic continuity. Despite an occasional tendency to ramble, Hall conveys a genuine enthusiasm for maps of all kinds. Recommended for any library.
- Gregg Sapp, Montana State Univ. Libs., Bozeman
Copyright 1992 Reed Business Information, Inc.
- Gregg Sapp, Montana State Univ. Libs., Bozeman
Copyright 1992 Reed Business Information, Inc.
