Reviewed by Matin Durrani

Felice Frankel, the renowned landscape photographer, was hosing her driveway one Sunday afternoon when she decided to search for one of the more interesting puddles. After dropping some oil onto the water, she waited half an hour until the diffraction colours caught her eye, and then captured a stunning image of the oil slick on camera.

It is just one of 58 intriguing images of the surface of objects taken by Frankel, who is also an artist-in-residence at the Massachusetts Institute of Technology. Her pictures range from ferrofluids, liquid crystals, microelectrodes and optical waveguides, to unfamiliar views of everyday objects like soap bubbles, gemstones, “tears” of wine and drops of water. Interesting notes at the end of the book explain the photographic techniques that Frankel used, while the accompanying text by George Whitesides, a chemistry professor at Harvard University, clearly and lucidly explains the science behind the surfaces.