A Natural History of Color: The Science Behind What We See and How We See It

Cosmic fog, rainbows, and Gary Larson cartoons are among the many topics touched on in this intermittently entertaining but scattered study on the physics of color. DeSalle (A Natural History of Beer), an American Museum of Natural History curator, and Bachor (A Guide to Experiments in Quantum Optics), an Australian National University professor emeritus, ruminate on how the ability of organisms to discriminate between photons of different wavelengths fueled evolution on Earth. Unfortunately, they get carried away with too many digressions, including Stephen J. Gould’s critique of evolutionary biology, how a star’s apparent color can reveal its age, and a Philip K. Dick short story’s depiction of how eyesight would function on a planet orbiting the red star Betelgeuse. The authors adopt a rather cheery tone (at one point asking the reader to imagine “if you were to stick a pin directly into the center of your eye”) that feels as if targeted toward a younger audience, but is at odds with the lengthy technical discussions, such as of the proteins responsible for detecting light, or the mimicry genes in the genomes of certain butterflies. Elucidating and amusing but overly cluttered, this book will capture only the most persistent devotees of evolutionary biology. Agent: Don Fehr, Trident (July)