WINNER OF THE 2001 KRASZNA-KRAUSZ PHOTOGRAPHY BOOK AWARD (Technical Photography category)

The only definitive book to fully encompass the use of photography and imaging as tools in science, technology and medicine. It describes in one single volume the basic theory, techniques, materials, special equipment and applications for a wide variety of uses of photography, including: close up photography and photomacrography to spectral recording, surveillance systems, radiography and micro-imaging.

This extensively illustrated photography 'bible' contains all the information you need, whether you are a scientist wishing to use photography for a specialist application, a professional needing to extend technical expertise, or a student wanting to broaden your knowledge of the applications of photography.

The contents are arranged in three sections:
· General Section, detailing the elements of the image capture process
· Major Applications, describing the major applications of imaging
· Specialist Applications, presenting an eclectic selection of more specialised but increasingly important applications

Each subject is introduced with an outline of its development and contemporary importance, followed by explanations of essential theory and an overview of techniques and equipment. Mathematics is only used where necessary. Numerous applications and case studies are described. Comprehensive bibliographies and references are provided for further study.


Ensure you are aware of all the very latest scientific applications
Comprehensive wealth of scientific information in one single volume so it is all to hand when needed
Learn from Sidney Ray's complete coverage and interpretation of scientific and applied photography

Offers detailed technical information and advice on the step-by-step process involved in making high-quality scientific photographs, from buying equipment to mounting finished work.

On the Nature of Things commemorates a photojournalistic genius whose passion for his subject has rarely been equalled and whose pioneering techniques continue to define contemporary science/technological photography. Accompanied by commentary from Nobel prize-winning scientists, Goro's extraordinary images create a work of expertise and enchantment.

For almost fifty years, Fritz Goro gave Life magazine readers of all ages an eyewitness view of the greatest scientific and technological breakthroughs of our time. The splitting of the atom; the deciphering of DNA; the invention of the hologram; the coming of fiber optics, lasers, computers, microsurgery--these are only a handful of the momentous discoveries he captured in his consummately innovative photography, providing an intimate look at the way new phenomena work and revealing as never before the infinite shapes and dazzling lights and colors that comprise the universe.

It was Goro who went on-site with the Manhattan Project, actually standing on ground zero while it was still radioactive from the A-bomb test; who first photographed blood circulation in living animals; who documented a minute quality of plutonium as it was being produced, thus marking a milestone of the nuclear age; who captured a fetal image so hauntingly universal, it became the inspiration for the Starchild in Stanley Kubrick's film 2001. Perhaps most remarkable of all, he photographed the first model of explanation of the atom. Photographing subjects that were sometimes abstract and often evasive, Goro became a master of technical improvisation; in order to translate atomic physics visually, he used four lenses of different focal lengths, rotated the film position fifteen times, and made a total of thirty-three different exposures one one sheet of eight-by-ten color film.

Nearly a decade after his death, Aperture accords Fritz Goro the tribute he so richly deserves with the first comprehensive collection of his landmark work. More than a handsome book of 159 photographs, On the Nature of Things draws the reader into the environment of each depicted breakthrough with an immediacy intensified by the comments of eminent scientists--all international leaders in their respective fields, many of whom worked closely with Goro while he was visualizing their great achievements. Among them are Dr. Lennart Nilsson of Stockholm, one of the greatest of all medical photographers; Professor Ilya Prigogine, Nobel laureate in rotating chemical reactions; Professor Glenn Seaborg, Nobel prize-winner in medicine, neurology professor David Hubel; and Oliver Sacks, neurologist and celebrated author of Awakenings and The Man Who Mistook His Wife for a Hat. Anthropologist Stephen Jay Gould, one of the most widely read scientific writers of our time, supplies an introduction; while Goro's grandsons, Thomas, Peter, and Stefan Goreau, all respected scientists, contribute to a biographical essay.

Beautiful, startling, enlightening, On the Nature of Things shines with a rare fascination.

This exhibition catalogue offers information about the illustrations in Charles Darwin's book on expression, an insight into Darwin's thinking, showing his meticulous concern with the fine details of each illustration, and a look at the intellectual context in which he lived and worked. The illustrations described in this catalogue were the subject of an exhibition at the Natural History Museum, London, from 5 February to 29 March 1998.