To see a world in a grain of sand, And a heaven in a wild flower. To hold infinity in the palm of your hand, And eternity in an hour. William Blake, Auguries of Innocence, 1805
Here is the world viewed within a grain of sand, thanks to the stunning three-dimensional microphotography of Dr. Gary Greenberg. To some, all sand looks alike -countless grains in a vast expanse of beach. Look closer - much closer - and your view of sand will never be the same. Employing the fantastic microphotographic techniques that he developed, Greenberg invites readers to discover the strange and wonderful world that each grain of sand contains. Here are the sands of Hawaii and Tahiti, the Sahara and the Poles, a volcano, each exquisitely different, and each telling a fascinating geological story. Red sand and yellow, white sand and black, singing sand and quicksand: Greenberg's pictures reveal the subtle differences in their colours, textures, sizes, and shapes. And as this infinitesimal world unfolds so does an intriguing explanation of how each grain of sand begins and forms and finds itself in a particular place, one of a billion and one of a kind.
Author Biography
Dr. Gary Greenberg earned his doctorate in developmental biology from University College London and later joined the faculty at the University of Southern California. Co-founder of Edge Scientific Instrument Corporation, he developed high-definition 3D light microscopes, for which he has been issued nineteen US. patents. He is currently Research Affiliate at the University of Hawaii Institute for Astronomy. Dr. Gary Greenberg is a visual artist who creatively combines art with science. The cofounder of Edge Scientific Instrument Corporation, he has a Ph.D. in biomedical research from University College London and holds 17 patents for high-definition three-dimensional light microscopes. He has worked as a photographer, a filmmaker, a biomedical researcher, an academic, an inventor, and an entrepreneur. Since 2001, Dr. Greenberg has been using his special microscopes to create dramatic landscapes of ubiquitous objects like grains of sand, flowers, and food. These everyday objects take on a new reality when magnified hundreds of times. Dr. Greenberg lives in Paia, Hawaii.
