Synopses & Reviews
A science book like no other, The Where, the Why, and the How turns loose 75 of today's hottest artists onto life's vast questions, from how we got here to where we are going. Inside these pages some of the biggest (and smallest) mysteries of the natural world are explained in essays by real working scientists, which are then illustrated by artists given free rein to be as literal or as imaginative as they like. The result is a celebration of the wonder that inspires every new discovery. Featuring work by such contemporary luminaries as Lisa Congdon, Jen Corace, Neil Farber, Susie Ghahremani, Jeremyville, Jon Klassen, Jacob Magraw, and many more, this is a work of scientific and artistic exploration to pique the interest of both the intellectually and imaginatively curious.
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"A party for your left brain and your right brain." -- Boing Boing
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"This highly browsable volume puts a new lens to the long-time relationship between art and science.... Each entry admirably articulates a complex topic in concise and engaging ways.... Volvovski, Rothman, and Lamothe offer a stunning collection that reimagines scientific wonder and that is an eloquent argument for slow living in an age of immediate access." -- Science
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"The result is scientific, yet with tongue planted firmly in cheek. Why do we blush? includes a discussion of blood vessels and the sympathetic nervous system, along with a drawing of a naked man with his internal organs exposed (you'd blush too)."- - Studio 360 Blog
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"The genius of the book is its brevity and wit, and the room it leaves for imagination." - TheAtlantic.com
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"Promises to pick you up at the front cover, delight and fascinate you in a flurry of eye poppers, and drop you off better informed 168 pages later." -- Discovermagazine.com
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"Like a science book published by The New Yorker. Images range from 1980s textbooks homages to dinosaur watercolors to Escherian mind-benders to straight-up trippy, surrealist work that would be at home on an album cover." -- FastCoDesign
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"If you're looking for fun facts illustrated by some amusing imagery, it does the job well." - Steven Heller, The New York Times
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"As a lover of the intersection of art and science, I find myself more excited about The Where, the Why, and the How: 75 Artists Illustrate Wondrous Mysteries of Science than I've been about a book in ages. In this gem, as intellectually stimulating as it is visually stunning, creative trifecta Julia Rothman, Jenny Volvovski and Matt Lamothe invite some of today's most celebrated artists to create scientific illustrations and charts to accompany short essays about the most fascinating unanswered questions on the minds of contemporary scientists." -- Brain Pickings
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About the Author
Jenny Volvovski, Julia Rothman, and Matt Lamothe are partners in ALSO, a design firm based in Chicago and New York that has won numerous awards. Julia is author of the popular blog Book By Its Cover.
David Macaulay is an award-winning author and illustrator whose books have been translated into dozens of languages.