John D.Barrow is a Cambridge cosmologist whom I had not heard off, but unlike other reviewers I was not expecting a coffee table book, rather a decent attempt to put key scientific images in context. This the author does remarkably well. The book is 600 pages of image and commentary printed on quality paper, and well worth the modest asking price. There are 89 stories, each linked to a key image, and all divided up into 4 parts: Stars in Your Eyes (e.g. Astronomy), Spatial Prejudice (e.g. drawings and designs), Painting by Numbers (e.g. Mathematics) and Mind over Matter (e.g. Earth and Society). I was expecting some nice photographically rich images, and a bit of commentary, but what I got was an understandable but expert discussion centred on a particular image or picture. Many of which are not at all photographic masterpieces, but rather real life scientific drawings, diagrams or photographs. I can't put my finger on whats missing, but I got the impression that astronomy and the stars got a good lot of coverage, and that possibly some other less visual attractive domains were left by the wayside - but it is only an impression, and one that certainly did not affect my pleasure in reading nightly 3-4 of the stories. Despite my comment the coverage is absolutely astounding.
I loved the quote about our bodies being created in the stars and that we are living on Earth today thanks to its magnetic field. And my favorites were some of the early drawings of Smith, Meyer and Vesalius, the calculation and visualisation of chains and spans, and the photographs of bubble chamber tracks.
I had seen many of the images but the author always managed to create a compelling context, and in many cases add something interesting to the mix. Other images were new to me, and again the author managed to describe their origin, story and context is a very informative and accessible way. This book will certainly go on my shelves and I am sure it will be re-read several times over the coming years. As a plus it is an excellent and reasonably priced gift.
