BOOKS & MEDIA UPDATE

Picture thisFelice Frankel’s artful new book explains how to use images to communicateeffectively while capturing the wonder of science, says Jeremy G. Frey.

As the author states in her introduction, Envisioning

Science is about the kind of scientific image that

communicates information effectively both to

colleagues and to the general public. The amazing

impact generated by the transition from a flat image

used in a laboratory notebook to an image that

captures the marvel of the phenomena, explains why

this process is sometimes referred to as ‘Art’. Many of

the images in the book could indeed grace the walls of

a gallery, but they are not created at the whim of the

photographer. They are honest interpretations of the

results of scientific investigations, and are used to

communicate the importance of the observations in a

manner that truly fulfills the

aphorism ‘a picture is worth a

thousand words’. Envisioning

Science explains how to achieve

this marvel.

Frankel’s work has appeared on

the front cover of many of the

world’s major journals. Her first

book, On the Surface of Things,

written with George Whitesides,

gave us a glimpse of her

abilities. The details of the

techniques used to photograph

these images were briefly given

at the end of that book. In

Envisioning Science, we find out

much more about how Frankel

works.

There is a danger that readers of the book will think

that the images are like those we see in cookery books

– fantastic looking dishes that look much better on the

page then we can ever get them to look in the kitchen!

But this is just the book we need. We are shown how

to make images that do not just look impressive, but

serve the job of communicating the ideas or principles

of the scientific research behind the object being

photographed. With the advice of this book, and with

practice, we should all be able to produce much better

images of our work (even if not quite a superb as

those shown).

While the thrust of the book is about the use of

photography through many different devices, the

basics of picture making would apply equally well to

both conventional photography and computer graphic

creations. The photographic techniques covered in the

book include the direct use of a 35 mm camera, and

photography through stereo- and compound

microscopes to look at images down to the micron

scale. There is a section on digitally altering images,

for example coloring scanning electron microscope

(SEM) images. The book also contains an interesting

introductory chapter by Phylis Morrison giving a

historical perspective. The final chapter has useful

advice on how to keep and use your images.

The shape of the book is unusual but the layout is

friendly to the reader. The text refers to the relevant

images in the conventional manner (e.g. figure 6.39);

there are over three hundred images in

the book’s 335 pages. The presence of

the figure numbers on the left hand side

of each page of text makes it easy to

find the text relevant to any given

image. This bi-directional link between

the images and the text is further

enhanced by the 30-page visual index in

addition to a quite detailed conventional

text index. Even the contents pages

abound with colorful and dramatic

images.

The book is produced to a very high

standard on high quality paper and a

study binding; a very important aspect of

a book that will be referred to frequently

and used open in the laboratory. There

are a number of exercises provided for

each of the main chapters to bring out some of the

points made. These would also be useful if the book

was being used as a course text. Such a course would

certainly be a very useful addition to science graduate

studies.

This is a book full of amazing images and details of

how to create them, showing how to present your

own exciting observations as effectively as the

examples. I recommend this book most highly to

anyone who wants to know how to communicate their

work visually.

Jeremy G. Frey is a senior lecturer in chemistry at the

University of Southampton, UK.

Felice FrankelEnvisioning Science: The Design and Craft of the Science Image (2002),The MIT Press, 335 pp., ISBN: 0-262-06225-9 $55 / £36.95

December 2002 59

From Bakelite tocomposite – design innew materials

Design Museum GentGent, Belgium

The history of the use of fiber-reinforced materials in consumerproducts, and the influence ofcomposites on design in the second halfof the 20th century, are the subjects ofthis new exhibition. The stiffness,lightness, and freedom of shape thatcomposite materials afford have madethem a favorite of designers andengineers. Focusing on the use ofcomposites in furniture, lighting,construction, cars, bikes, andsportswear, the exhibition includes aFerrari, bullet-proof jackets, and anairplane.

Until 23rd February.

Art in the making –underdrawings inRenaissance paintings

National GalleryLondon, UK

Modern technology is allowing thepreliminary drawings hidden beneaththe surface of many paintings to berevealed. In this exhibition, images ofthese underdrawings are displayed nextto important paintings fromRenaissance Europe. The images, whichare recorded digitally using infraredreflectography and processed by acomputer program developed at thegallery, give fascinating insights into theway artists worked. Some paintingsunderwent dramatic changes ofcomposition, and some workshops usedtracings and stock patterns to producereplicas routinely. Works by Bruegel,Raphael, Altdorfer, Memling, and Crivelliare included.

Until 16th February.

Homepage

Felice Frankel’s webpageshttp://web.mit.edu/felicef/

These webpages are the place to findout about Felice Frankel’s use of imagesto communicate science effectively fordifferent audiences. Frankel is a researchscientist at the Massachusetts Instituteof Technology (MIT), but alsocollaborates with scientists to createimages for presentations andpublications. Using some of herfantastic images, and web design that iseasy on the eye, this site makes mostother homepages an embarrassment.Contact details are not included.