Hidden Worlds: Looking Through a Scientist's Microscope (Scientists in the Field Series)
Gr 4-8-An illuminating look at the work of a microscopist. Kunkel works with microscopes to explore science, both on his own and with specialists from related fields. This book contains many of his photos, most taken with electron microscopes. It's fascinating to see the magnified pictures of jellyfish, dust mites, and other creatures, neatly tinted to accentuate body features. Several opening pages, along with the front and back endpapers, are visually dazzling. The heart of the book, though, is what readers learn about how Kunkel produces these images, and to what uses scientists put them. The story of how he worked within the blast zone of Mount St. Helens in 1980 in order to study the effect of volcanic ash on algae is a vivid example of how exciting science can be. The text describes the qualities of several different microscopes, and photographs show the scientist using each tool in his lab. Readers also see samples of the images from each instrument, from the simple view captured with a loupe lens to the neurological details revealed by a transmission electron microscope. Like Kramer's Eye of the Storm (Putnam, 1997), this title offers a wealth of scientific information along with an insightful look at the world of an individual scientist.Steven Engelfried, Beaverton City Library,Copyright 2001 Cahners Business Information, Inc.--This text refers to an out of print or unavailable edition of this title.