No Small Matter

Science on the Nanoscale

Felice C. Frankel

George M. Whitesides

  • Felice C. Frankel is winner of the Photographic Society of America's 2009 Progress Medal
  • George M. Whitesides is winner of the 2009 Dreyfus Prize in the Chemical Sciences

Holy cow! It's exceptionally rare that science rendered in such lucid, thoughtful, charming fashion. But I am not sure I've ever encountered a beautiful book as important as this one, or vice-versa. "Awesome" is an overused phrase these days, but No Small Matter is exactly, totally, gratifyingly that.
   --Kurt Andersen, author of RESET and Heyday, host of public radio's Studio 360

It is hard to grasp what we cannot see, even harder when not even a microscope can see it. With unmatched clarity and arresting elegance, Frankel and Whitesides have designed a narrative and visual voyage into the nanouniverse, revealing its basic constructs without sacrificing its magic."
   --Paola Antonelli, Senior Curator of Architecture and Design, The Museum of Modern Art

As modern science has explored the deepest foundations of the physical world, its discoveries have become ever harder to make sense of, ever more remote from everyday life. Yet these same discoveries have transformed our everyday lives, and continue to do so. Felice Frankel and George Whitesides are masters at the art of envisioning the invisible. In this beautiful and beautifully written book, they open our minds' eyes to the thrillingly enigmatic world that we inhabit, embody, and create.
   --Harold McGee, author of On Food and Cooking, The Science and Lore of the Kitchen

  • Cover: No Small Matter
  • A photo of the author

Felice C. Frankel is Senior Research Fellow in the Faculty of Arts and Sciences, Harvard University.

George M. Whitesides is Woodford L. and Ann A. Flowers University Professor, Harvard University.