The Where, the Why, and the How

Science has had a pretty good run these last few centuries: immunology, space travel, the Higgs Boson. But there are still plenty of phenomena at the edge of our understanding. The Where, The Why, and The How is a sort of text book for grown-ups that addresses science’s enduring mysteries. The book pairs artists and scientists to answer a range of weird questions: from “What is antimatter?” to “Why do we yawn?”
On one side of the page, a scientist presents a formal explanation of the topic; on the other, an artist offers a visual interpretation. Rarely technical, the illustrations range from the whimsical to the abstract (see a slideshow below). “We were really inspired by the old scientific diagrams and drawings from the 1950s and earlier,” says co-editor Julia Rothman, “when [scientists] were still figuring things out. We wanted to do a book like that – where things were mysterious and the artist could fill in the information themselves.”
Listener Challenge: Are We Alone in the Universe?
Create an original illustration to answer the question. Your image can be as technical, impressionistic, or abstract as you see fit.
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Slideshow: The Where, the Why, and the How