Super Vision: A New View of Nature

by Ivan Amato (Author)

11 customer reviews

ISBN-13: 978-0810945456

ISBN-10: 9780810945456

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Spanning the world of scientific phenomena from sub-atomic particles to the structure of the universe, a selection of two hundred scientific images draws on an array of modern scientific imaging instruments and techniques to explore the rich beauty and vast complexity of nature. 15,000 first printing.

Editorial Reviews

From Publishers Weekly

From the incomprehensibly minute movements of subatomic particles to the equally incomprehensible curve of the universe, Science News associate editor Amato has gathered a selection of images of processes, objects and beings that give the external world's inhuman scales their close-up. From a human immunodeficiency virus rising "like a sun over turbulent waters" over a lymph tissue cell to an Interferometric Synthetic Aperture Radar image of Washington, D.C., and back down to "the smallest guitar in the world"-a silicon guitar 10-millionths of a meter long, with guitar strings only about 100 atoms wide-Amato tours the limits of representation, and the many techniques scientists and other specialists have developed for rendering the invisible and the monumental. Fractals, microchips, biotechnology and global warming all make appearances. In many cases, the images have been garishly colored in order to highlight the details, sometimes too much so, and the author is obviously interested in comparing art to nature, directly so in a comparison of cancerous dog skin to Vincent van Gogh's Starry Night (plausible) and a cross-section of a dog's skin mole to a Picasso (less so). A series of black-and-white photographs of snowflakes (each one of which is indeed unique) have all the somber documentary power of a Walker Evans. The "Visible Human Project," uses X-rays and magnetic resonance techniques to completely represent the human body, in meaty tissue tones that make the neck look like a piece of chuck. The accompanying text is non-patronizing, introducing technical terms and processes carefully and making this set of visions super indeed.
Copyright © Reed Business Information, a division of Reed Elsevier Inc. All rights reserved.

From Booklist

Many scientists are inspired by the beauty of the natural world and have a strong desire to bring all of life into crisp focus, hence the creation of such devices and technologies as the telescope, microscope, spectroscopy, X rays, radar, and particle accelerators, all of which greatly extend our visual range, and grant us what prolific science writer Amato calls supervision. Thanks to this capacity, science has become increasingly image driven, a fact celebrated to splendid effect in this gorgeously produced volume. The startling images--the bizarrely pretty budding of a deadly virus, the elegance of a polymer helix, the astonishing complexity of a single heart cell, the surprisingly rough texture of a rose petal, the intricacies of a microchip--are arresting in their richness and grace, resembling in their patterns everything from mandalas to a Van Gogh sky, abstractions by Jackson Pollock, and fantastic landscapes. As nanotechnologies evolve and more images of the universe are beamed back to earth, we'll continue to acquire new perspectives, and, hopefully, new insights. Donna Seaman
Copyright © American Library Association. All rights reserved

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Product details

Hardcover: 232 pages
Publisher: Harry N. Abrams (November 1, 2003)
Language: English
ISBN-10: 9780810945456
ISBN-13: 978-0810945456
ASIN: 0810945452
Product Dimensions: 9.6 x 1 x 11.4 inches
Shipping Weight: 3 pounds (View shipping rates and policies)
Average Customer Review: 11 customer reviews
Amazon Best Sellers Rank: #1,716,658 in Books (See Top 100 in Books)
- #41833 in Science & Mathematics
- #42951 in Nature & Ecology (Books)

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Bunuweld

Good Images and Text

February 10, 2012

Format: HardcoverVerified Purchase

The concept of this book is an excellent one, trying to encompass views of our universe from the the most minuscule to the colossal. Although many of the images or similar ones could be found in other publications, to have them in a single volume, as Super Vision does, is a wonderful project.
Some of the illustrations appear to be unnecessarily large. What is offered in extra-size, with poor resolution and some blurring, could have been presented as smaller and crisper images occupying less than one page instead of one-and-a-half pages, and it would have reduced the book's size without detracting from its considerable virtues. Furthermore, the expansion of an over-sized image to the adjacent page destroys its integrity without adding any value. The only advantage I can see in this would be for the visually impaired.
In the book's Introduction (page 18) there is an error in the wavelength scale illustration. The visible spectrum is displayed with the violet color towards the longer wavelengths (infrared) and the the red color towards the shorter ones. This, of course, should be the reverse.
I have enjoyed the book greatly, and plan to make it part of my permanent library. The three-star rating would be much higher if it were not for some of the over-sized images which I found unnecessary and, at times, annoying.

15 people found this helpful

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Sheila Ary

Everbody needs this book

January 11, 2015

Format: HardcoverVerified Purchase

Everybody needs this book. I gave a copy to my grandson, who has just started college, and he disappeared into it at once. The idea of this prize-winning book is to show the natural world in new ways, starting with the minutest little things that can only be seen through an electron microscope and going all the way to the incomprehensibly large universe that we live in. The pictures are amazing, and beautifully colorful. Each one is accompanied by a description of what is shown, how the picture was taken, and the information it provides, all written in clear and easy to understand language, nothing too technical. You can study this book from beginning to end, or you can just dip in and see what marvels you find each time

I can't recommend this book too highly.

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Chris

wow!

April 21, 2013

Format: HardcoverVerified Purchase

I purchased this book because I work in a scanning electron microscopy lab and the images in this book are stellar! I use the book to show friends and family examples of really small stuff in great detail. It also serves as an inspirational tool for when I have down time and want to look at random stuff under the scope. The book is awesome, you most likely will not regret the purchase!

5 people found this helpful

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David Voss

Stunning book about a beautiful world

December 9, 2003

Format: HardcoverVerified Purchase

From protons to parsecs, Ivan Amato's "Super Vision" reveals what many scientists know: the universe is a visually stunning place. This remarkable collection of images, coupled with Amato's compelling captions, shows the art that can be found in science. Thanks to advances in instruments ranging from atom smashers to telescopes, combined with unprecedented computer power, the phenomena of the cosmos can be painted in vivid color. Scientists use these images in their daily effort to understand the universe; we can enjoy them for pure aesthetic pleasure. Covering 42 orders of magnitude (powers of ten), "Super Vision" shows us the abstract swirls of a decaying particle, the eerie machinery of a spider's spinnerets, how zebrafish scales can look like a Balinese hillside, and the tortured faces of distant planets. For a guide to the art in our natural world, this is the book. It's as beautiful as the universe it describes.

29 people found this helpful

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Sylvia Amato

This is an absolutely beautiful book showing images from the tiniest entities to the ...

February 10, 2015

Format: HardcoverVerified Purchase

This is an absolutely beautiful book showing images from the tiniest entities to the largest in the world. It should be on everyone's coffee table
or in everyone's library. The book gives a perspective made possible by the use of various means of taking pictures in such a way as to make the viewer see in a different way. The images are both informative and artistic. Ivan Amato accompanies the images with clear and succint explanations.

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Numbers Gal

Wonderful, beaUtiful and though provoking -

January 3, 2013

Format: HardcoverVerified Purchase

I bought this book hoping to share it with my grandchildren age 4-12. It's a bit deep for them, although the 7 year old enjoyed browsing through it with me. On the other hand, my husband and I adored it. Everything the other reviewers said is true.

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Catherine C. Smith

Interesting images

May 23, 2011

Format: HardcoverVerified Purchase

The colors and clarity are stunning. I was looking for images to springboard designs for quilts and found a treasure house. Since I wasn't interested in the text I can't evaluate that; the illustrations are exceptional.

5 people found this helpful

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Veric

Misnamed?

September 13, 2013

Format: HardcoverVerified Purchase

A view of Nature? Perhaps it refers to the physics of light and sound while using some biological subjects to discuss these things? I expected a biology book. They use the word nature in a much broader category than I expected, very disappointed with the book, but only because I was looking for a book to motivate me into using my microscope. The images and discussions in this book are done from God only knows what kind of technology - needless to say a microscope I will never own. Understand I say all this without reading it before writing this. I'm sure it it a good book for the right audience. The dangers of internet buying. Also, I got it for 6.99 free shipping.

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Super Vision: A New View of Nature

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Editorial Reviews

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From Booklist

Product details

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