Beautiful Evidence

A COLLEAGUE of Galileo, Federico Cesi, wrote that Galileo’s 38 hand-drawn images of sunspots “delight both by the wonder of the spectacle and the accuracy of expression.” That is beautiful evidence.

Evidence that bears on questions of any complexity typically involves multiple forms of discourse. Evidence is evidence, whether words, numbers, images, diagrams, still or moving. The intellectual tasks remain constant regardless of the mode of evidence: to understand and to reason about the materials at hand, and to appraise their quality, relevance, and integrity.

Science and art have in common intense seeing, the wide-eyed observing that generates empirical information. Beautiful Evidence is about how seeing turns into showing, how empirical observations turn into explanations and evidence presentations. The book identifies excellent and effective methods for preventing information, suggests new designs, and provides tools for assessing the credibility of evidence presentations.