30.11 Books NS

BOOKS & ARTS NATURE|Vol 444|30 November 2006 textbook-like coverage of the perception of in a short review. Suffice it to say that Regan’s Second, it turns out that the processing of spatial form, the book provides rather special- friends and colleagues produced an excellent motion-defined form may be defective in ized, mostly very well written, chapters that are Festschrift, with well structured, well formu- patients even though simple motion detection more or less closely related to the topic, by some lated and well argued synopses on many facets is intact. Third, although retinal images are of the most prominent people in the field. of visual perception, not just spatial form. Even flat and the detection of surfaces represents an The individual chapters provide excellent a reader seasoned in vision research will find early stage of visual computation, perception reviews on state-of-the-art research in a wide not just new pieces of knowledge, but plenty of is always inherently three-dimensional, even range of topics, all related to Regan’s inter- new insights — this, in my opinion, makes it in the pictorial space of photographs. Finally, ests. And wide they are, at a time when many an ideal book to choose for those times when great progress has been made in understanding researchers devote their life to a single topic, you’re stranded on a desert island. It will tell the neural basis of ‘form vision’. For example, or even to a single technique. Regan is more of you about all those topics in vision research three-dimensional shape can be perceived from a Renaissance man, not only being interested that you always wanted to discover but did not as few as two frames of a motion sequence. in and using psychophysical methods, both in have the time to read about. If, once you have read the book, you want to normal observers and patients suffering from Let me give you four examples. You prob- know even more, no problem: there are selected different deficits of visual perception, but ably know, or would have guessed, that atten- references after each chapter, and a CD-ROM also sum-potential recordings, ‘active’ vision tion plays an important role in programming with additional material to keep you busy for with eye movements, functional magnetic saccades, or rapid eye movements. But were you quite a while. ■ resonance imaging, neuropharmacology and aware that planning and executing them ‘costs’ Manfred Fahle is in the Department of Human developmental methods. Accordingly, the cognitive resources, and that a batsman cannot Neurobiology, University of Bremen, book covers a wide range of topics, and a wide follow an approaching ball with his eyes but 3 Argonnenstrasse, 28211 Bremen, Germany, and range of methods for studying them. needs to estimate its time of arrival with an accu- at the Henry Wellcome Laboratories for Vision It is not possible to mention all these topics racy better than one-hundredth of a second? Sciences, City University, London EC1V 0HB, UK. Reaching for the stars The beauty of a rocket engine designed by Valentin Glushko lies in its functionality. Martin Kemp items have acquired a ‘period style’ that How and when does a utilitarian piece of speaks eloquently of their eras. technology become an object of beauty? The Glushko engine, however, has M. KEMP This question was triggered by an early little period style, so the second factor rocket engine designed by Valentin must predominate. This is what I call the Petrovich Glushko (1908–89) that is on aesthetic of ineffable rightness. Supreme display in the Museum of Space Exploration designs in technology and the applied arts and Rocket Technology in St Petersburg. often exude an intense air of inevitability. Glushko’s ‘Rocket Motor 50’ (shown here), Once invented, we can see that the design elegantly sectioned to disclose the chamber presents an optimal solution that transcends where paraffin and nitric acid mixed, sits the idiosyncrasies of its human designer. In gleaming on a white plinth in a museum relation to function and materials, we can case. It was invented for a rocket conceived intuit that the solution presented is the by Mikhail Tikhonravov, a visionary advocate right one. of space travel. To eyes attuned to the The form of Glushko’s engine is dictated aesthetic delights of high-tech objects by by technical parameters, such as the angles generations of twentieth-century artists, and bends of the pipes that feed fuel to the such as Russian sculptor Naum Gabo, this central cylinder. They were not designed to is a beautiful object. look good — but they do. Glushko, born in the Ukrainian city of At a time when the United States is Odessa, pioneered electric and liquid were concerned solely with function. So contemplating manned expeditions to Mars, propulsion systems at the Gas Dynamics is there even the slightest justification for those motivations that lie outside the strict Laboratory, which then occupied the site of seeing his rocket engines as anything other scientific imperatives again come to the fore. the present museum on Peter the Great’s than obsolete relics of a great technological The aesthetics of space flight — the beauty fortified island of Zayatchy. In 1935 he adventure? of the technology, whether sleek or quirky published his book Rockets, their Construction There seem to be two reasons why our — are important if the programmes are to and Utilization. fascination with such relics goes beyond garner public support. Although imprisoned during a Stalinist historical curiosity. The first is largely Was Glushko himself solely driven by purge, Glushko returned to become the superficial: there is an undeniable romantic scientific and technological imperatives? leading engine designer for the Soviet attraction to old technologies, once modern My guess, looking at his Rocket Motor 50, is missile and space programme. A falling-out but now quaint. The crowds at shows of that he was deeply engaged with the visual with rocket designer Sergei Korolev, over veteran cars or early aeroplanes testify to ‘rightness’ of his invention as an integral the right propellants for the ill-fated Moon the emotional pull of antique machinery. component in his quest for functionality. programme, left him sidelined again, but An early electron microscope in a science Martin Kemp is professor of the history after Korolev’s death he returned to head museum exudes an air of nostalgic of art at the University of Oxford, Oxford the space bureau. quaintness, even for spectators who know OX1 1PT, UK. His new book, Seen | Unseen, It seems that Glushko’s engine designs little of the history of such devices. Such is published by Oxford University Press. SCIENCE IN CULTURE 550 © 2006 Nature Publishing Group.

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