Invisible: The Dangerous Allure of the Unseen pdf

菲利普·鲍尔是一位自由科学作家。他之前在 Nature 工作了 20 多年，首先担任物理科学编辑（他的简介从生物化学扩展到量子物理和材料科学），然后担任顾问编辑。他为大众媒体撰写的关于科学的著作涵盖了从宇宙学到分子生物学的未来等热点问题。 菲利普是许多关于科学的流行书籍的作者，包括关于水的性质、自然界中的图案形成、艺术中的色彩、社会和政治哲学科学、音乐认知和纳粹德国物理学的著作。他撰写了大量关于艺术与科学之间相互作用的文章，并在维多利亚和阿尔伯特博物馆（伦敦）、美国宇航局艾姆斯研究中心、伦敦国家剧院和伦敦经济学院等场所向科学和普通观众发表了演讲。 菲利普继续定期为《自然》撰稿。他为《新科学家》、《纽约时报》、《卫报》、《金融时报》和《新政治家》等出版物做出了贡献。他是《展望》杂志的特约编辑（他为此撰写了一个科学博客），同时也是《化学世界》、《自然材料》和意大利科学杂志 Sapere 的专栏作家。他曾多次在广播和电视上播出，并且是 BBC Radio 4 的“科学故事”节目主持人。他是英国皇家化学学会会士，是《化学世界》和《跨学科科学评论》的编委，以及是波鸿鲁尔大学溶剂化科学 RESOLV 网络的董事会成员。 Philip 拥有牛津大学化学学士学位和布里斯托大学物理学博士学位。 菲利普鲍尔是一位作家。他的大部分书都以某种形式关注科学：它的历史、它与艺术和社会的互动、它的成就、乐趣和弯路。他是几家杂志的固定专栏作家，偶尔也是电台主持人和广播员。他多年来一直是《自然》杂志的编辑，很久以前，他还是化学家和物理学家。

Invisible: The Dangerous Allure of the Unseen pdf 菲利普·鲍尔

If offered the chance—by cloak, spell, or superpower—to be invisible, who wouldn’t want to give it a try? We are drawn to the idea of stealthy voyeurism and the ability to conceal our own acts, but as desirable as it may seem, invisibility is also dangerous. It is not just an optical phenomenon, but a condition full of ethical questions. As esteemed science writer Philip Ball reveals in this book, the story of invisibility is not so much a matter of how it might be achieved but of why we want it and what we would do with it. In this lively look at a timeless idea, Ball provides the first comprehensive history of our fascination with the unseen. This sweeping narrative moves from medieval spell books to the latest nanotechnology, from fairy tales to telecommunications, from camouflage to ghosts to the dawn of nuclear physics and the discovery of dark energy. Along the way, Invisible tells little-known stories about medieval priests who blamed their misdeeds on spirits; the Cock Lane ghost, which intrigued both Samuel Johnson and Charles Dickens; the attempts by Victorian scientist William Crookes to detect psychic forces using tiny windmills; novelist Edward Bulwer-Lytton’s belief that he was unseen when in his dressing gown; and military efforts to enlist magicians to hide tanks and ships during WWII. Bringing in such voices as Plato and Shakespeare, Ball provides not only a scientific history but a cultural one—showing how our simultaneous desire for and suspicion of the invisible has fueled invention and the imagination for centuries. In this unusual and clever book, Ball shows that our fantasies about being unseen—and seeing the unseen—reveal surprising truths about who we are.