The Elements
The Elementshas become an international sensation, with over one million copies in-print worldwide. An eye-opening, original collection of gorgeous, never-before-seen photographic representations of the 118 elements in the periodic table. The elements are what we, and everything around us, are made of. But how many elements has anyone actually seen in pure, uncombined form? The Elementsprovides this rare opportunity. Based on seven years of research and photography, the pictures in this book make up the most complete, and visually arresting, representation available to the naked eye of every atom in the universe. Organized in order of appearance on the periodic table, each element is represented by a spread that includes a stunning, full-page, full-color photograph that most closely represents it in its purest form. For example, at -183degC, oxygen turns from a colorless gas to a beautiful pale blue liquid. Also included are fascinating facts, figures, and stories of the elements as well as data on the properties of each, including atomic weight, density, melting and boiling point, valence, electronegativity, and the year and location in which it was discovered. Several additional photographs show each element in slightly altered forms or as used in various practical ways.
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- One amazing implementation of that sort of thing was the "Leonardo" CD-ROM presentation of the Codex Leceister:
https://mostre.museogalileo.it/codiceleicester/en/introducti...
https://en.softonic.com/articles/bill-gates-bought-a-da-vinc...
I really wish that there were more examples of that sort of thing. Other books which push the boundaries on technological presentation:
- https://www.motionmountain.net/
- _The Elements by Theodore Gray_ https://apps.apple.com/us/app/the-elements-by-theodore-gray/...
One might argue that _Myst_, or at least its predecessor _The Manhole_ (billed as "Where Alice would have gone if Alice had had HyperCard") also merits mention.
- This is an aspect of something which I wish would be more acknowledged and investigated:
>How can the electronic representation of books be made more rich and featureful?
Some notable examples:
- https://mathcs.clarku.edu/~djoyce/java/elements/elements.htm...
- https://www.motionmountain.net/
- The Elements by Theodore Gray https://apps.apple.com/us/app/the-elements-by-theodore-gray/...
- the "Living Books" series: https://wanderfulstorybooks.com/
Unfortunately vanished (anyone have an archive? was the wonderful _Bembo's Zoo_ https://www.devicq.com/bembo-zoo/ and https://engagetheirminds.com/2012/04/05/bembos-zoo/
I'd be very glad of other examples.
- It's a tough problem to solve and the computation of it all is sufficiently expensive that doing it on a battery-powered device is a significant drain.
A further difficulty is the file formats being used --- ages ago, I tried to argue for an ebook format which specifically noted markup and content as being decorative or semantic and looking over the specification I don't see that that was ever really worked up.
That said, a further difficulty is even if a feature is in the spec, it's not certain if the various hardware and readers would actually be implemented.
One back-burner project I've had for a while is to take a publication, make it into an ePub, then use the ePub as the source for a nicely typeset version (or more likely, series of versions) --- gotta finish a bunch of other projects first.
FWIW, it seems to me that a lot of the effort into nice typography/appearance is going into the "coffee table" sort of books which these days are stand-alone apps such as:
https://apps.apple.com/us/app/the-elements-by-theodore-gray/...
and it seems to me that there is a lot of potential for such documents which is as-of-yet only poorly explored --- some examples which seem to be reaching towards this:
- Bembo's Zoo --- this used to be a Flash-based website which was delightful: https://jilltxt.net/bembos-zoo/ --- it really needs to be brought back
- Euclid’s Elements Joyce's Java Version --- https://mathcs.clarku.edu/~djoyce/java/elements/elements.htm... --- I refer to and link to this version by preference
- Motion Mountain: The free physics textbook --- https://www.motionmountain.net/ --- if this would read well in a PDF viewer on the Kindle Colorsoft, I'd get one --- as it is, I've been reading through it on my Samsung Galaxy Book 3 Pro 360, and it's done a lot to help my understanding of physics
- various CD-ROMs and other multimedia efforts --- "The Manhole" became Myst which became a franchise unto itself, Broderbund's "Living Books" are now a popular line of apps, the Voyager series which was _amazing_ and I'd dearly love to see revisited https://www.washingtonpost.com/archive/business/1995/01/02/t...
- Leonardo da Vinci CD-ROM which was a wonderful interface for exploring the "Codex Leicester" --- https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Leonardo_da_Vinci_(video_game)
I'd be very interested in other texts which explore this space and which have the potential for nice typography.
That said, I am fine with just reading ebooks on my Kindle w/ flush-left, ragged-right and having the ability to report the (apparently inevitable) typo.
- Very cool!
Does anyone have a list of other similar texts?
There's:
- Geometry: Joyce's Java version of Euclid's _Elements_: https://mathcs.clarku.edu/~djoyce/java/elements/elements.htm...
- Physics: https://www.motionmountain.net/
- Chemistry: The Elements by Theodore Gray https://apps.apple.com/us/app/the-elements-by-theodore-gray/...
A nifty thing my kids enjoyed was the website version of the book, _Bembo's Zoo_ (which sadly is no longer on-line: https://soundeffects.fandom.com/wiki/Bembo%27s_Zoo_(Websites... )
- That's a divide which I've been curious about for a while --- what texts are suited for an app/interactive version?
One which I usually bring up is:
https://mathcs.clarku.edu/~djoyce/java/elements/elements.htm...
but contrast that with:
https://apps.apple.com/us/app/the-elements-by-theodore-gray/...
- I recall reading about using neutron beams to alter the chemistry of phonograph needles. I think the idea was to make them into a radioactive isotope that continually ionized the needle, so that it repelled dust.
But maybe I'm remembering wrong. The closest article I can find is from Theodore Gray [0]. It talks about old phonograph needles made from osmium, which is very toxic in dust form.
[0] https://theodoregray.com/periodictable/Elements/076/index.s1...
