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Summary
Summary
There are hidden worlds in nature--places you can visit only with a microscope. For more than twenty-five years, Dennis Kunkel has been exploring these worlds. Through the lenses of powerful microscopes, he has examined objects most people have never even thought about: a mosquito's foot, a crystal of sugar, a grain of pollen, the delicate hairs on a blade of grass. Hidden Worlds takes you behind the scenes of Dennis's work and explains how he captures his remarkable images of microscopic life and objects. You'll learn how Dennis became interested in microscopes as a boy, how he prepares specimens for study, and how different kinds of microscopes work. You'll also have the chance to follow Dennis as he collects in the field--from the ash-covered slopes of Mount St. Helens to the lava tubes, rainforests, and beaches of his home state of Hawaii.
Author Notes
STEPHEN KRAMER is the author of many science books for young readers, including How to Think Like a Scientist , Lightning , and Eye of the Storm. He teaches at an elementary school near Vancouver, Washington, where he lives with his wife and two sons.
Reviews (4)
Horn Book Review
(Intermediate) Dennis Kunkel has a cool job. Unlike the content specialists profiled in previous books in the Scientists in the Field series, Kunkel's expertise lies in the use of a sophisticated scientific tool-microscopy. As a result, he gets to be a modern Renaissance man, dabbling in a variety of science areas beyond his training in botany: muscle cells, post-volcanic eruption pond life, dust mites, and the critters in his own back yard. This uniquely kaleidoscopic focus allows author Kramer both to explain scientific equipment and procedures and to highlight the important role of technical equipment in scientific research. The profile of this scientist and his work includes typical biographical components, such as Kunkel's early interest in science, but also much detail on the nature of microscopic images and the reliance of science on observation. A particularly illuminating section on mosquitoes compares the images produced by increasingly powerful microscopes. Appropriately, the book prominently features Kunkel's breathtaking colorized microphotographs, a presentation enhanced by the sharp layouts. The clarity and detail in these images is remarkable. Though Kramer provides an excellent explanation of the reasons a scientist adds color to microscopic images, it is clear from the composition of images and his choice of colors that Kunkel also has an artist's sensibility. d.j.f. (c) Copyright 2010. The Horn Book, Inc., a wholly owned subsidiary of Media Source, Inc. No redistribution permitted. All rights reserved.
Booklist Review
Gr. 4-7. From the Scientists in the Field series that produced outstanding titles such as Nic Bishop's Digging for Bird Dinosaurs (2000) come these fine new entries. Anthropologist introduces readers to Magdalena Huriado and Kim Hill, a husband-and-wife team who study the Acheof Paraguay, one of the few remaining hunting and gathering peoples. Batten's graceful text covers basic science concepts (what an anthropologist really does; what evolutionary biology is) in accessible, clear language and examples just right for kids, offering fascinating hypotheses along the way. Hidden Worlds focuses on the work of Hawaii-based microscopist Dennis Kunkel. The text nicely illustrates how a scientist explores, discovers, and formulates questions. The stunning color photographs, provided by the scientists themselves, are the books' real strength. Huriado and Hill's shots bring the Ache's way of life up close, without sensationalizing, while kids will pore over Kunkel's magnified shots of a carpet flea, red blood cells, and more. Substantive, readable, and visually outstanding. --Gillian Engberg
School Library Journal Review
Gr 4-8-An illuminating look at the work of a microscopist. Kunkel works with microscopes to explore science, both on his own and with specialists from related fields. This book contains many of his photos, most taken with electron microscopes. It's fascinating to see the magnified pictures of jellyfish, dust mites, and other creatures, neatly tinted to accentuate body features. Several opening pages, along with the front and back endpapers, are visually dazzling. The heart of the book, though, is what readers learn about how Kunkel produces these images, and to what uses scientists put them. The story of how he worked within the blast zone of Mount St. Helens in 1980 in order to study the effect of volcanic ash on algae is a vivid example of how exciting science can be. The text describes the qualities of several different microscopes, and photographs show the scientist using each tool in his lab. Readers also see samples of the images from each instrument, from the simple view captured with a loupe lens to the neurological details revealed by a transmission electron microscope. Like Kramer's Eye of the Storm (Putnam, 1997), this title offers a wealth of scientific information along with an insightful look at the world of an individual scientist.-Steven Engelfried, Beaverton City Library, OR (c) Copyright 2010. Library Journals LLC, a wholly owned subsidiary of Media Source, Inc. No redistribution permitted.
Kirkus Review
Outstanding photographs invite the reader into the world of microscopist Dennis Kunkel, a working scientist who studies plants and animals using lenses from the simple hand loupe, which magnifies an image up to ten times, to the sophisticated transmission electron microscope (TEM) that uses an electron beam and can magnify an object up to 1,000,000 times. As with other titles in the "Scientists in the Field" series, Kramer provides biographical information, quotes from the scientists, and a detailed explanation of field science techniques in a glossy photo-essay. He manages to capture the sense of wonder and excitement and the meticulous care taken by Kunkel as he observes plants and animals in the field and the laboratory. Photographs on every page show vividly colored specimens from minute dust mites, magnified 560 times to the neuroglial cell from an Asian tiger mosquito magnified 22,925 times. The title includes a careful explanation of the differences between types of microscopes, how materials are prepared for viewing with each type, and why the information gathered is useful to scientists and ordinary people. For example, Kunkel studied the muscle cells of the embryonic South African clawed frog to learn more about how specialized cells receive messages from nerves-information that may someday help doctors treat patients with muscle diseases. An excellent additions to the science, biography, and careers sections. (Nonfiction. 10-14)
