Science is Beautiful - disease and medicine

Science is Beautiful - disease and medicine - Colin Salter ***

How you respond to this book will probably depend a) on how you feel about coffee table books and b) what your response is to those sections in some newspapers (and New Scientist) which are striking photographs with a relatively small amount of text.

What Colin Salter has done here is bring together microphotographs of a large range of bacteria and viruses, along with assorted medicines, the latter particularly in crystal form. The results can be striking, particularly when false colours are used to bring out details, or in the stunning rainbow optical effects when light is passed through some crystals.

I had hoped I would get enough out of the book to enjoy looking through the images in detail, but on the whole, there was a tendency very quickly to start flipping through thinking 'Yes, that's nice,' or 'That's impressive,'... without taking a lot in.

In a way it's more like a trip round an art gallery exhibiting microphotographs than reading a book. And while there certainly is impressive variability in shapes of bacteria and viruses, once you seen a few, it is very much a matter of variations on a theme.

Science is Beautiful would be best employed providing some impressive inspiration for an artist, or to help pass a little time in a doctor's waiting room. (On second thoughts, probably not a doctor's - preferably a rather less medical waiting room.)

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Review by Brian Clegg

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