Shaping Space : Exploring Polyhedra in Nature, Art, and the Geometrical Imagination

Molecules, galaxies, art galleries, sculptures, viruses, crystals, architecture, and more: Shaping Space―Exploring Polyhedra in Nature, Art, and the Geometrical Imagination is an exuberant survey of polyhedra and at the same time a hands-on, mind-boggling introduction to one of the oldest and most fascinating branches of mathematics.

Some of the world’s leading geometers present a treasury of ideas, history, and culture to make the beauty of polyhedra accessible to students, teachers, polyhedra hobbyists, and professionals such as architects and designers, painters and sculptors, biologists and chemists, crystallographers, physicists and earth scientists, engineers and model builders, mathematicians and computer scientists.

The creative chapters by more than 25 authors explore almost every imaginable side of polyhedra.  From the beauty of natural forms to the monumental constructions made by man, there is something to fascinate every reader. The book is dedicated to the memory of the legendary geometer H. S. M. Coxeter and the multifaceted design scientist Arthur L. Loeb.

Marjorie Senechal, a world leader in mathematical crystallography, is Louise Wolff Kahn Professor Emerita in Mathematics and History of Science and Technology at Smith College, where she taught from 1966 to 2007. In 2007, she received the College's Honored Professor Award. Professor Senechal is currently Senior Fellow of the Kahn Liberal Arts Institute at Smith and editor-in-chief of The Mathematical Intelligencer, a cultural journal for the international community of mathematical scientists. Her areas of mathematics research are discrete geometry, tiling theory, and mathematical crystallography. In addition to numerous articles, she is the author or editor of ten books, including Quasicrystals and Geometry, Long Life to Your Children! (a portrait of High Albania),  American Silk, 1830 - 1930: entrepreneurs and artifacts, and I Died for Beauty: Dorothy Wrinch and the Cultures of Science.