Enhancing Frail Human Senses

Hooke s major published work was his 1665 folio Micrographia, one of the most beautiful books in the history of science. It is overwhelmingly a book of microscopy, although the final two essays describe telescopic studies of the stars and the moon. Hooke s later sketches of Mars were employed in the nineteenth century to determine the planet s period of rotation.  

From the distant mirror of the seventeenth century, Hooke assures us that we can recover some degree of those former perfections (lost upon Adam and Eve s expulsion from Eden) if 

The next care to be taken, in respect of the Senses, is a supplying of their infirmities with Instmments, and as it were, the adding of artificial Organs to the natural  

And while Hooke s microscopic tour-de-force is state-of-the-art in 1665, he 

An ambitious agenda, indeed. But let us select a few micromorsels from Micro-graphia. 

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