Of all the remarkable substances
of our experience – rain, leaves, baby toes – light
is perhaps the most miraculous...
(get
it from Amazon) (get
it from Princeton Press)
(sample
chapter) (detailed
table of contents)
Reviews:
The book reminds me of Richard Feynman’s QED: The Strange
Story of Light and Matter, from which you can learn a lot with
good explanations and a few figures.
Science writing does not get any better than The Optics of Life,
and I highly recommend this enjoyable and enlightening book to a
broad audience from freshmen to graybeards.
--Curtis Mobley, American Journal of Physics (read
full review here: starts on third page)
"...surprisingly readable and fun"
--Alexis Madrigal, The Atlantic (read
full review here)
While commendably up to date, The Optics of Life is also composed
in an enticing style, pruned of all unnecessary jargon. It will
speak not only to biological scientists,
but also to physicists interested in the countless roles played
by light in the natural world.
--Bernard Dixon OBE, The Biologist (read
full review here)
"[Johnsen's] style is fluent, witty and a pleasure to read...I
am grateful to this book for forcing me to come to terms with a
number of aspects of light that I had been delinquent enough to
ignore, and in a way that was a pleasure — like a long walk
in hilly country."
--Mike Land, Current Biology (read
full review here)
"Because of its emphasis on correctly approaching the way
physical measurements should be made, The Optics of Life
has something to offer anyone whose research directly or tangentially
involves light. More than a biologist's guide to light in nature,
this book is a guide for any scientist interested in optics and
the world around us."
-- Nicholas Roberts, Physics Today (read
full review here)
"Johnsen's treatment is both inviting and sophisticated. He
introduces every idea with a carefully worded and straight-forward
description, often with anlogies to other real world experiences
or ideas. He treats the mathematical details on a 'need to know'
basis and usually goes no further than some simple algebra. But
Johnsen has picked the details he does present carefully, and the
simple principles have profoundly important impacts on biological
optics and how we study it."
-- Richard Prum, The Wilson Journal of Ornithology (read
full review here)
"This book is written in an entertaining style so it is a
pleasure to read. Each chapter starts with a thought-provoking quote,
and ends with an amusing and interesting anecdote or reverie. My
favorite chapters contain illuminating discussions on scattering,
scattering with interference, absorbance, and transparency. [V]isual
ecology and physiology have become significantly productive subdisciplines
in biology. . . . Sönke Johnsen serves as a conduit between
these two fields, as he gracefully presents the physical principles
of optics in a simplifying manner that makes the reader want to
apply new found knowledge to their own research."
-- John E. Steffen, Integrative and Comparative Biology (read
full review here)
Johnsen masterfully guides the reader through a fascinating area
of applied optics which has been very active in recent decades.
[This book] will be of interest to a variety of readers, from undergraduate
students in biology to curious researchers looking for a greater
understanding of nature.
-- Christian Brosseau, Optics and Photonics News (read
full review here)
"Johnsen has written an excellent, readable, practical, and
greatly entertaining introductory book on light and its
applications in the biological sciences, including ecology."
-- John Lambropoulos, Choice Reviews (read
full review here)
I really enjoyed the explanations of how we see and perceive the
world around us. I will watch twilight with a new perspective now.
-- Joseph Ferrara, Crystallography Times (read
full review here)
Endorsements:
"This book provides just about everything one needs to know
about biological optics, from the nature of light and its transmission
to intensity, color, and polarization properties and their consequences.
It is informal yet detailed, and will be easily accessible to anyone
interested in biological optics, environmental optics, and animal
or human vision. I highly recommend it."
--John A. Endler, professor of sensory ecology and evolution, Deakin
University, Australia
"The Optics of Life provides a user-friendly introduction
to the physics and measurement of light. From plant physiologists
working on photosynthesis to visual scientists stimulating eyes
with light, many biologists will benefit greatly from the wisdom
and insight provided in this book. The Optics of Life is
a major contribution to the field, and will no doubt become a classic."
--Eric Warrant, Lund University, Sweden
"This is a gem of a book. It's the one I wish I had when I
was starting out in photoecology--it would have saved me a lot of
pain. The style is very entertaining and the material is wonderfully
practical and down-to-earth. Every biologist should read it."
--Edith A. Widder, CEO and senior scientist, Ocean Research and
Conservation Association, Fort Pierce, FL, USA
Errata:
1. “Detector” is misspelled in figures 10.3 and 10.4
2. the correct citation for Figure 3.14 is A. P. Lane and W. M.
Irvine (1973). Monochromatic phase curves and albedos for the lunar
disk. Astronomical Journal 78, 267–277.
3. The scale bar in figure 5.5 should read "1 µm"
not "1 mm"
4. The scale bar in figure 5.6 should read "0.1 µm"
not "0.1 mm"
5. just below equation B.2 on page 290 in Appendix B, the quotient
equation for the x value is the reciprocal of what it should be.
|