A Natural History of Seeing: The Art and Science of Vision
Ings avoids a conventional approach to his subject, the sense of sight, opting instead for an eclectic presentation. Although he brings in the people who discovered the anatomy, chemistry, genetics, and psychology of human vision, Ings integrates them into a narrative directed more by his own thoughts about the eye, whether prompted by watching his infant daughter’s way of watching things or by musing on the play of light outside his window. This personal train of thought, however, is robustly reinforced by Ings’ engagement with research on vision from ancient times to the present; curiosity and a willingness to challenge whether experts have got it right are the attractive qualities of his book. Packed with illustrations, it unpacks the apparent continuous quality of human vision by exploring the actual discontinuity of the sense, from the blind spot to the saccade, a term for the eye’s twitchy reassembly many times per second of its field of view. Diving into evolution, too, Ings’ excitement about sight will entice science buffs. --Gilbert Taylor