Nanoscale: Visualizing an Invisible World [Hardcover]

Kenneth S. Deffeyes (Author), Stephen E. Deffeyes (Author)

Book Description

ISBN-10: 0262012839 | ISBN-13: 978-0262012836 | Publication Date: February 13, 2009

A tour through a world too small to see with a microscope: air, ice, diamonds, aspirin, fuel cells, and other structures viewed and described in the scale of nanometers.

Editorial Reviews

Review

The world is made up of structures too small to see with the naked eye, too small to see even with an electron microscope. Einstein established the reality of atoms and molecules in the early 1900s. How can we see a world measured in fractions of nanometers? (Most atoms are less than one nanometer, less than one-billionth of a meter, in diameter.) This beautiful and fascinating book gives us a tour of the invisible nanoscale world. It offers many vivid color illustrations of atomic structures, each accompanied by a short, engagingly written essay. The structures advance from the simple (air, ice) to the complex (supercapacitator, rare earth magnet). Each subject was chosen not in search of comprehensiveness but because it illustrates how atomic structure creates a property (such as hardness, color, or toxicity), or because it has a great story, or simply because it is beautiful. Thus we learn how diamonds ride volcanoes to the earth's surface (if they came up more slowly, they'd be graphite, as in pencils); what form of carbon is named after Buckminster Fuller; who won in the x-ray vs. mineralogy professor smackdown; how a fuel cell works; when we use spinodal decomposition in our daily lives (it involves hot water and a package of Jell-O), and much more. The amazing color illustrations by Stephen Deffeyes are based on data from x-ray diffraction (a method used in crystallography). They are not just pretty pictures but visualizations of scientific data derived directly from those data. Together with Kenneth Deffeyes's witty commentary, they offer a vivid demonstration of the diversity and beauty found at the nanometer scale.

"The twentieth century brought us two new views of the world we live in and two new levels of understanding -- the awesome views from space and the fascinating and astonishing images of the atomic world from the electron microscope. There are many popular presentations of the former but this volume is one of the first to give us a superbly illustrated glimpse of the micro-world that controls almost every aspect of our every day lives -- both useful and enjoyable!"--Lord Ronald Oxburgh, Chairman of The Shell Transport and Trading Company, and a member of the House of Lords, United Kingdom

(Ronald Oxburgh )

"Nanoscale helps us visual the invisible world of the ultra-small, combining both beautiful pictures with solid scientific explanation in a joyful union of art and science."--Alan Lightman, author of Einstein's Dreams and Ghost

(Alan Lightman )

"Every page of the Deffeyes's engaging texts and striking illustrations reveals surprises about the nanoarchitecture of our world and conveys how exciting and delightful science can be. Beautiful, amusing, and richly informative, this book deserves to be a classic."-- Peter Pesic, author of Sky in a Bottle

(Peter Pesic )

"[A] thoughtful, playful 'tour through the nano-scale world' [...] the 50 cameo explanations are clear and vivid, often with surprising details and amusing touches of humanity." Publishers Weekly

"Every page of the Deffeyes' engaging texts and striking illustrations reveals surprises about the nanoarchitecture of our world and conveys how exciting and delightful science can be. Beautiful, amusing, and richly informative, this book deserves to be a classic." Peter Pesic , author of Sky in a Bottle

" Nanoscale helps us visualize the invisible world of the ultra-small, combining both beautiful pictures with solid scientific explanation in a joyful union of art and science." Alan Lightman , author of Einstein"s Dreams and Ghost

"If you are looking for a tour through the nanoscale world, this book is a goodstarting point." Chemistry World

About the Author

Kenneth S. Deffeyes is Professor of Geology Emeritus at Princeton University. He is the author of Hubbert's Peak and Beyond Oil. Stephen E. Deffeyes is a freelance illustrator and designer.

"The twentieth century brought us two new views of the world we live in and two new levels of understanding -- the awesome views from space and the fascinating and astonishing images of the atomic world from the electron microscope. There are many popular presentations of the former but this volume is one of the first to give us a superbly illustrated glimpse of the micro-world that controls almost every aspect of our every day lives -- both useful and enjoyable!" Lord Ronald Oxburgh , former Chairman, House of Lords Select Committee on Science and Technology

Product Details

• Hardcover: 144 pages
• Publisher: The MIT Press (February 13, 2009)
• Language: English
• ISBN-10: 0262012839
• ISBN-13: 978-0262012836
• Product Dimensions: 9.2 x 6.3 x 0.7 inches
• Shipping Weight: 1.2 pounds (View shipping rates and policies)
• Average Customer Review: 4.0 out of 5 stars  See all reviews (2 customer reviews)
• Amazon Best Sellers Rank: #1,290,447 in Books (See Top 100 in Books)

Customer Reviews

Most Helpful Customer Reviews

3 of 3 people found the following review helpful:

5.0 out of 5 stars Big book about little things, October 22, 2009

By 

Robert J. Deffeyes "Amateur photographer" (Georgetown, Texas) - See all my reviews
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This review is from: Nanoscale: Visualizing an Invisible World (Hardcover)

GREAT coffee table book with beautiful illustrations. This is a readable book to help ordinary people understand a little about ordinary science if little things. Reading the work of astronomers with measurements of light years boggles the mind. Now you can have YOUR mind boggled by things measured in billionths of a meter. I guess that the publisher got so carried away with the thrill of reading about the nanometer world that they published it too close to nanosized. The beautiful illustrations would be great in a bigger format, maybe 8 by 12 coffee table size, but maybe the publisher has a smaller coffee table than I do.

2 of 8 people found the following review helpful:

3.0 out of 5 stars Nice photos, June 29, 2009

By 

A. Hall "Obscure" (Manchester, England) - See all my reviews
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This review is from: Nanoscale: Visualizing an Invisible World (Hardcover)

Having looked at this book, I was a little disappointed as whilst the photos of stuff from air to diamond were enlightening, I found the accoumpanying text rather less informative. I was expecting some data -packed work on the impact of nanoscale particles on the environment and living things. So this is not so much a good read, more a good look. It is essentially a catalogue of computer generated molecular structures. If this work shows anything, its that most stuff is just a bunch of atoms so in a sense most stuff is pretty much the same stuff. Its a good job that the nanoworld is invisible otherwise we'd all fall asleep.