The Where, The Why, The How: 75 Artists Illustrate Wondrous Mysteries Of Science, edited by Jenny Volvovski, Julia Rothman, and Matt Lamothe
In many ways, this is an enjoyable book for the reader. Half of the book, after all, consists of whimsical and beautiful illustrations in the style of David Macaulay’s work in books such as The Way Things Work. This should not come as too much of a surprise, as Macaulay himself provited an entertaining forward that contains a brief discussion and a strange drawing of a camera obscura in the method of Canaletto. This forward sets the tone for the book as a whole, which is divided between beautiful illustrations and scientific explanations of some sort of mysteries in science that remain. The illustrations are by a fair margin the better part of the bargain, as many of the scientific discussions presuppose faulty scientific worldviews like global warming and macroevolution, that help explain why at least some of the mysteries remain, in that one cannot find the answers if one is asking the wrong questions. The writers successfully convey a sense of wonder, but seem unlikely to solve some mysteries as they are barking up the wrong tree.
The contents of this book are straightforward and easy to understand, and at under 200 pages make for a fairly straightforward read for those who are interested in scientific mysteries. Seventy five mysteries are discussed, organized by subject matter, and on one page a scientist discusses a mystery, what is mysterious and what is known, as a suggestion to further research, and on the other there is artwork illustrating the mystery in some fashion. The mysteries discussed range from question as to why we age, with an expression of a desire to live forever, to questions about “junk DNA,” why we sleep and dream, whether one imaginary phenomenon (macroevolution) can outpace another (global warming), the communication and lifespan of trees, and the possible danger of nanomaterials. The end result is a book that expresses the sorts of questions that scientists spend their lifetimes seeking to discover, including questions that nonscientists ask—like what is the purpose of the appendix or fingerprints. One of the mysteries has even been solved—namely the existence of the Higgs Boson—and as a whole the essays reflect a great deal of thought and an appropriate sense of wonder about creation.
There is a great irony in this book, as there often is in books about science [1]. Specifically, the book itself is a triumph of graphic design on the part of artists, and the authors express questions about purpose, given the fact that human beings are hardwired, it would seem, to ask why, as anyone who knows small children will readily understand. Yet the authors of the scientific questions examine the mysteries of creation from the point of view of believing in a purposeless and undersigned universe, despite the fact that they design careful experiments and seek to understand the purposes for various functions, even if they can only conceive of those purposes in the point of view of evolution—which greatly hampers the explanatory power at their disposal. Even so, this book is a useful reminder to readers, whether they are friendly to the authors’ worldviews or not, that regardless of what worldview we have, there are questions about purpose and a desire to know why, and a realization that we do not have all the answers, and that this fact ought to inspire and encourage us that there are still unexplored areas where we can investigate, rather than think that everything worthwhile has already been done. This book is a welcome reminder that there is much left to explore for scientists.
[1] See, for example:
https://edgeinducedcohesion.wordpress.com/2016/04/12/book-review-cache/
https://edgeinducedcohesion.wordpress.com/2016/04/10/audiobook-review-the-science-of-interstellar/
https://edgeinducedcohesion.wordpress.com/2016/04/03/book-review-the-bee-friendly-garden/
https://edgeinducedcohesion.wordpress.com/2015/06/26/book-review-ambient-findability/
https://edgeinducedcohesion.wordpress.com/2015/05/31/book-review-a-general-theory-of-love/
Edge Induced Cohesion 