Ings' work delves into both the evolution of sight and the evolution of the human understanding of sight. The book presents the natural science, while also addressing the history, philosophy, and mythology of how and why people see the way they do. Illustrations throughout.

This illustrated survey covers what Nicholas Wade calls the "observational era of vision," beginning with the Greek philosophers and ending with Wheatstone's description of the stereoscope in the late 1830s.

We spend about one-tenth of our waking hours completely blind - only one percent of what we see is in focus at any one time. You don't need eyes to see - blind volunteers have been taught to see through their chests. Through a spellbinding mix of scientific research, mathematics, philosophy, history, myth, anecdote and language theory, Simon Ings brilliantly unravels the never-ending puzzle of how and why we see in the way that we do. With the help of a beguiling mix of illustrated visual conundrums and enigmas, Ings triumphs with a compelling dissection of the eye's age-old mysteries that is both seriously interesting and interestingly fun.

We spend about one-tenth of our waking hours completely blind. Only one percent of what we see is in focus at any one time. We exist in a world we see that's always about half a second behind the real one. In fact you don't need eyes to see - blind volunteers have been taught to see through their chests. Wasps can't see, but map their surroundings instead. If we are stared at, our heartbeat rises and our galvanic skin response alters. How many generations did it take for the first fish to acquire eyes? Answer is 400,000. Why do humans have whites to their eyes when other species don't? Could it be that thinking arose as an evolutionary response to seeing? Without eyes, would minds exist at all? Be prepared to have your eyes opened! Using a spellbinding mix of scientific research, mathematics, philosophy, history, neuroscience, anecdote and language theory, in The Eye, Simon Ings unravels brilliantly the never-ending puzzle of how and why we see in the way that we do. From looking at the work of a huge range of theorists and scientists, to myths and personal experiences, and with the help of a beguiling mix of illustrated visual conundrums and enigmas, Ings triumphs with a compelling dissection of the age-old mysteries of the eye that's both seriously interesting and interestingly fun. He tells the eye's whole story for the very first time, fusing eye and sight into a single story - this is popular science of the highest order.

Diane Ackerman's lusciously written grand tour of the realm of the senses includes conversations with an iceberg in Antarctica and a professional nose in New York, along with dissertations on kisses and tattoos, sadistic cuisine and the music played by the planet Earth. “Delightful . . . gives the reader the richest possible feeling of the worlds the senses take in.” —The New York Times

A star curator at the American Museum of Natural History widens the palette and shows how the physical, natural, and cultural context of color are inextricably tied to what we see right before our eyes. Is color a phenomenon of science or a thing of art? Over the years, color has dazzled, enhanced, and clarified the world we see, embraced through the experimental palettes of painting, the advent of the color photograph, Technicolor pictures, color printing, on and on, a vivid and vibrant celebrated continuum. These turns to represent reality in “living color” echo our evolutionary reliance on and indeed privileging of color as a complex and vital form of consumption, classification, and creation. It’s everywhere we look, yet do we really know much of anything about it? Finding color in stars and light, examining the system of classification that determines survival through natural selection, studying the arrival of color in our universe and as a fulcrum for philosophy, DeSalle’s brilliant A Natural History of Color establishes that an understanding of color on many different levels is at the heart of learning about nature, neurobiology, individualism, even a philosophy of existence. Color and a fine tuned understanding of it is vital to understanding ourselves and our consciousness.

In this comprehensive and abundantly illustrated book, Allan Schoenherr describes a state with a greater range of landforms, a greater variety of habitats, and more kinds of plants and animals than any area of equivalent size in all of North America. A Natural History of California will familiarize the reader with the climate, rocks, soil, plants and animals in each distinctive region of the state.