Key Images in the History of Science A remarkable book tracing
the history and influence of nearly two hundred iconic images
that changed human conceptions of the universe and our place in
it. We live in a visual age, an age of images—iconic, instant,
and influential—that have crystallized our conception of the
large, the small, and the complex, of both inner and outer
space. Some, like Robert Hooke's first microscopic views of the
natural world, arose because of new technical capabilities.
Others, like the first graphs, were breathtakingly simple but
perennially useful. The first stunning picture of Earth from
space stimulated an environmental consciousness that has grown
ever since; the mushroom clouds from atomic and nuclear
explosions became the ultimate symbol of death and destruction;
Mercator's flat map of the Earth cemented an entire worldview.
John D. Barrow's collection encompasses the frontiers of modern
science and its most memorable historic moments. But this is
much more than a picture book. Ent