Looking Within

For most of human history, our bodies have been inscrutable, accessible only to exterior or postmortem examination. But over the past hundred years, we've found tricky ways of viewing our bones, brains, and unborn children and thus greatly enriched our health. Medical physicist Anthony Brinton Wolbarst celebrates this revolution in Looking Within, an intriguing survey of medical imaging from the early days of Roentgen to the latest developments in thermography and functional magnetic resonance imaging. Writing for a general, if well-educated, audience, he guides us through the century by explaining the theories underlying each imaging technique as applied to real cases: broken bones, tumors, and heart disease all make their presence known through increasingly sophisticated technology.

The images, both reproductions and explanatory diagrams, are top-notch, lending a visual balance to the text that carries the reader through even when Wolbarst (rarely) gets a bit too technical. His experience with the National Cancer Institute and the Environmental Protection Agency broadens his range of understanding of the effects of radiological imaging on our lives, making his explanations more cogent and practical. Whether you want to gain insight into that ultrasound you have coming up or you simply want to marvel at the miracles of modern medicine, Looking Within will help you see what's really going on--just like a shoe store fluoroscope. --Rob Lightner