Hold infinity in the palm of your hand

Powers of Ten

• Charles Eames &
• Ray Eames

Freeman, $9.95

A change in magnification of 10³⁸ will take you from beyond the Galaxy into the nucleus of a carbon atom — a zoom that any film maker would envy. Powers of Ten (Freeman, $9.95) makes this journey in a ‘flipbook’ based on a short film by Charles and Ray Eames, better known as the designers of some of the century's most famous furniture. These pictures on the human scale make up the film's pivotal central sequence, as we swoop down on, and into, the hand of an unsuspecting Chicago picnicker, rendered unconscious by his heavy lunch and even heavier choice of scientific reading matter.