Yasuya Nomura

2014

The inner ear is a beautiful organ particularly when it is shown in color. Its sensory cells lie in a hard cavern (the temporal bone) of a deep sea (the inner ear fluids). Color illustrations bring the organ forth out of darkness into a brilliant world and enable us to see glittering original shapes suggesting functional significance. Alfonso Corti published a paper with colored figures in 1851 describing the hearing organ that later bore his name. He no doubt would have published his paper using color photographs, had they been available 160 years ago.