ABSTRACT An overview of some of the main modes of making images of natural objects and processes, as they have appeared in the history of science, leads to two main conclusions. First, the dichotomies that have traditionally distinguished, for example, art from science, museums from laboratories, and geometrical from algebraic methods have produced a poverty of understanding of visualization. It is at the intersections of these dichotomies where much of the creative work of science occurs, and it is into those (...) intersections that this Focus section leads us. Second, the section suggests that we need to understand images as arguments. Generalizing, we need to develop a “materialized epistemology” that reunites sensual with ideational knowing. Recent work in the history of science is already pointing the way and producing a dramatically new historiography. (shrink)

D’Arcy Thompson’s On Growth and Form is one of the key works at the intersection of science and the imagination. This introductory essay explores the book and its context, drawing on archival sources to provide a unique perspective. It looks at Thompson’s own life and career, his experiences at University College, Dundee, and how he came to write the book. It describes the contents of the 1917 first edition (as many today are familiar only with the 1961 abridgement of the (...) 1942 second edition). It looks at the book’s initial reception, exploring the context of biological ideas of the time, particularly in regard to Thompson’s perceived opposition to Darwinian theory and the debate between vitalism and mechanism. It explores the early influence of the book on ecologists and systems theorists and other early attempts at mathematical biology, as well as its significant influence on artists and architects. It then describes the development of the second edition of the book and the subsequent increase of interest in his work from both artists and scientists. It concludes by summarizing recent initiatives in the D’Arcy Thompson Zoology Museum. (shrink)