See the invisible world beyond human senses!
The power of images to move beyond the transmission of knowledge

The technology that makes the invisible visible has become the eye of science,
Through the eyes of science, we have come to see a wider, deeper, and more delicate world.


From things too small to see to things too vast to see, scientists have developed a variety of visualization tools to explain the world that exists beyond our human senses even though it is invisible to the naked eye.
Whether it's a simple numerical graph drawn by hand on graph paper or an elaborate image created through computer simulation, the visualization of scientific knowledge has something in common.
First, it contains complex theories or vast amounts of data in a single image, and second, that single image is far more persuasive than a hundred words of explanation.
Sometimes, it goes beyond imparting knowledge and evokes unexpected emotions or awakens a sense of alarm, making us reflect on the course of humanity.
This is the power of images, the power of visualization.


"The Eye of Science" is a book that presents scientific knowledge from various fields in a single image, rather than explaining it in a complex way.
Every time you turn the page, you are presented with a feast of images that stimulate your curiosity and leave a strong impression.
Above all, by demonstrating the process of exploring science visually, it demonstrates how visual information has played a significant role in the scientific understanding and achievements that humanity has achieved today.

We live in an invisible pattern of delicate beauty and sophisticated chaos that exists at every scale.
Invisible radiation pours out from all sides, filling all space and surrounding us in a changing field.
Our cells, intricate molecular machines, are too small to be seen, and the story of our origins stretches back unimaginably far.
The only way to understand the discoveries of science is to imagine them in our minds, or even better, to picture them before our eyes.

--- p.9, from “Starting: See, Show”

A microscope creates magnified images of small objects, and a telescope creates magnified images of distant objects.
The eyepiece projects a magnified image into our view, resulting in a much larger image on our retina than would be possible if we were to view the same object with the naked eye.
Microscopes and telescopes allow us to perceive things that are too small or too far away for the naked eye to see.

--- p.13, from “Microscopes and Telescopes Beyond the Limits of the Eye”

An electron microscope creates an image by detecting the electrons that pass through or bounce off an object when an electron beam is shined on it.
The wavelength of electrons is much shorter than the wavelength of visible light.
Therefore, the resolution limit of an electron microscope is much narrower than that of an optical microscope.
Because of this difference, electron microscopes can magnify up to 50 million times, while light microscopes can only magnify up to 2,000 times.

--- p.20, from “Photography and Electron Microscopy to Capture Information”

There are countless natural phenomena that emit electromagnetic radiation.
Because the human eye can detect only visible light, a very small portion of the electromagnetic spectrum, many of these fascinating phenomena went unnoticed until technology was developed to detect other types of radiation.
Perhaps the scientific field that has benefited most from this technology is astronomy.
Numerous celestial objects that do not emit visible light at all have been discovered through radio telescopes or infrared telescopes.
The radiation emitted by celestial bodies contains valuable data that can reveal important information such as the composition of the celestial bodies, their temperature, and the energy processes occurring within them.

--- p.49, from “The World Beyond the Visible Spectrum”

Electrons, atoms, and molecules cannot be directly observed even with the resolution of an electron microscope, let alone an optical microscope.
For decades, scientists have been resigned to these limitations.
But in the 1980s, scientists at IBM Research invented a revolutionary tool that could create detailed images of the surface of atoms.
This is the scanning tunneling microscope (STM), invented by Gerd Binnig and Heinrich Rohrer.
A scanning tunneling microscope is a microscope that records changes in current that cause tunneling (a phenomenon in which electrons pass through a material with wave properties) by scanning the surface of a material with a very sharp tip, and uses this data to identify minute undulations on the surface of the material.
Starting with the scanning tunneling microscope, various types of microscopes using probes (scanning probe microscopes) have been developed, enabling the visualization of a wider variety of materials.

--- p.70, from “The Field and Particles Everywhere”

When defining the characteristics of big data, the three Vs are often mentioned.
These are Volume, Variety, and Velocity.
Big data is usually a large amount of data (volume) of various types (variety) from various sources, and is generally received and processed quickly (speed).
When massive amounts of data are input quickly, many computers perform storage and processing simultaneously.
When dealing with such large amounts of data, another V, visualization, will become a key element.

--- p.102, from "A Deep Dive: Big Data"

The enlightenment that knowledge brings is a joy and fascination in itself, but it also has practical benefits.
People in diverse fields, including engineers, architects, policymakers, and artists, utilize scientific knowledge.
Therefore, scientists who discover new knowledge have both a duty and a desire to communicate it not only to other scientists but also to the wider community.

--- p.132, from “Knowledge Transfer, Leading to New Discoveries”

Computer simulations have been used primarily in fields such as physics, chemistry, earth science, and astronomy, but they are now playing a growing role in other fields as well.
In biology, accurately modeling organs on computers allows researchers to experiment with "living" systems in silico (computer) rather than in vivo (living organism).

--- p.153, from “Mathematical Modeling of the Real World”

Space art and paleo art have distinctly different themes.
There is one more difference.
While we can't go back in time and compare paleoart to real-life (unless we're recreating extinct species Jurassic Park-style), some scenes from space art have already been captured in images, and there's every chance we'll be able to do so in the future.
In fact, Chesley Bonestell drew Saturn's rings with remarkable precision, and later space probes captured similar scenes in photographs.
Future telescopes may be able to reveal detailed images of exoplanets or even produce sharp images of quasars, which currently appear as faint, fuzzy dots.

--- p.246, from “Encounter of Infinite Possibilities, Space Art”