under the microscope


The Mizielińskis


Non-fiction for children has undergone a transformation in recent years with big, bold illustrated books catching the eye and filling bookshelves. Polish illustrators Aleksandra and Daniel Mizieliński can claim a large part in this, their book Maps, an international bestseller, led the way in this new approach to information books. In London recently they talked to Books for Keeps about their work and new book Under Earth, Under Water..


Now husband and wife, Aleksandra and Daniel Mizielinski have been working together since they met at the Faculty of Graphic Arts at the Warsaw Academy of Fine Arts. They studied under the same tutor Professor Maciej Buszewicz and from early days considered writing for children. Daniel explains: ‘Some writers feel that writing for children is somehow a lesser occupation, but in design it is the opposite: every famous Polish designer creates books for children, it’s like the best thing you can do. It was obvious to us from the start to try our hand at books.’


They developed four or five non-fiction books, created mock ups and took them to publishers: ‘Everyone said “Oh those books are great but no-one will buy them”,’ remembers Daniel ruefully. Then Polish publisher Dwie Siostry asked them to create a book about architecture – H.O.U.S.E. an illustrated guide to the world’s most astounding homes, and the architects that designed them. Teeming with colour and information, the book was declared Book of the Year 2008 of the Polish Section of IBBY and later published in English, German, French, Italian, Spanish, Russian and many other languages including Arabic and Chinese. Suddenly they were a different proposition for publishers: ‘Our approach isn’t new,’ says


SCIENTISTS UNDERWATER


Scientists study the depths in small, three- or four-person research vessels (known as submersibles), equipped with cameras and mechanical arms controlled from the cabin.


Unlike naval vessels, research craft usually have windows. In vessels adapted for very great depths these are small because of the immense pressure deep down. But in the ones that do not descend deeper than a few hundred metres, large windows allow the crew to admire the view freely.


SM300/3 T SP-350 Denise roy


French film-maker Fabien Cousteau had the idea of constructing a submersible that looked deceptively like a great white shark. This made it possible for him to swim among the sharks, filming and observing them.


CORAL REEFS


In the shallow, sun-drenched waters of warm seas, we find one of the natural world's most precious treasures – the coral reef. Coral reefs are made up of rocks formed from the remains of coral and covered with living colonies of them. They exist at a depth of up to 50m in places where the temperature of the water never falls below 18°C.


The corals that build the reefs are tiny organisms, only a few millimetres long. As they multiply they create immense colonies of various colours and shapes made up of many thousands of individuals. Although they resemble plants, they are animals. They feed mainly on zooplankton (microscopic sea creatures). In addition, there are algae living in their bodies that use the sunlight to produce nutrients for them.


Before then, nobody knew how sharks behave without people in the vicinity. Fabien Cousteau tried to find this out by pretending to be one of them.


Coral reefs are the focus for a great wealth and variety of underwater nature. Although they only occupy a fraction of a percent of the surface of the oceans, as many as 25% of all species of sea creatures live in and around them: fabulously colourful fish, sea snails, shrimps, crabs, turtles, sponges, starfish, sea urchins and many, many more.


JAGO


This two-person vessel, built in 1959 by the French marine scientist and explorer Jacques Cousteau, could descend to a depth of 300m.


powder blue tang DeepWorker empress angelfish bluelashed butterflyfish Johnson-Sea-Link II


water from a river or lake


the water is purified


The water circulating between the thermal power station and the buildings is only to be used for heating, and never reaches the tap in the bathroom or kitchen.


WATER TREATMENT PLANT Nautile green chromis yellow tang


There are three ways to source water: shoreline intake (1), a water well (2) and an infiltration well (3).


Mir


The crew of the Nautile can send Robin – a remote-controlled robot – into almost inaccessible places.


Submersibles Mir-1 and Mir-2 have taken part in underwater expeditions to the ocean bed underneath the North Pole, and to the bottom of the world's deepest lake, Lake Baikal. They have also been used to film the wrecks of sunken ships, including the Titanic.


There are only a few research vessels in the world that can reach a depth of more than 3000m.


DSV Shinkai 6500


This three- man Japanese submersible can descend to 6500m .


schooling bannerfish orange-lined triggerfish


After a serious accident, German scientist and cave diver Jochen Hasenmayer lost the use of his legs. To carry on working, he designed a special craft in which he can move about in flooded caves.


blacktail humbug


Straining through a sieve which holds back most of the impurities.


blue star Barrier Reef anemonefish common clownfish Speleonaut Jiaolong


Chinese submersible Jiaolong is one of three manned vessels that have gone down to depths of more than 7000m. The two others are the bathyscaphe, T


rieste, and Deepsea Challenger (see pages  42–45). 33


Removal of compounds of iron and manganese, which make the water smell and taste bad.


blue surgeonfish copperband butterflyfish


-50m 9


Softening, or the removal of compounds of lime and magnesium. When water is hard it leaves a white residue.


saddleback clownfish 1


Water can be taken from a river, lake or reservoir.


aquiferous stratum, meaning a layer that gathers and lets in water


a layer that is impervious to water


First of all, a filter cleans the water.


WAYS OF


TREATING WATER


2


A water well extracts water from underground.


Filtration, meaning percolation through a layer of sand.


Removal of harmful salts and mineral compounds.


Disinfection, meaning the elimination of bacteria and viruses with the use of chlorine, ozone or UV rays.


aquiferous stratum


Drains collect water.


Water wells can reach depths of from 12 to over 100m.


3


The infiltration well collects ground water that comes from lakes and rivers.


The water percolates through the sandy bottom. As it flows through the sand and gravel under the river bed it is purified.


25 16 Books for Keeps No.224 May 2017


The water is pumped to the water treatment plant.


A water treatment plant is a place where water is purified so that it can be used in the kitchen or bathroom.


'Fat Katie', located in Warsaw, Poland, is the biggest well of its kind in Europe.


The water supply system provides water to taps and radiators.


Once it has lost its heat, the water returns to the thermal power station.


Daniel, ‘In fact it’s an old idea, but there weren’t any artists doing what we did at the time.’


He explains too that the state of the Polish publishing industry at that time was particularly helpful to them: “When we were kids’ (he and Aleksandra were born in 1982) ‘Polish publishers were printing at least 2 - 5 million copies of each book; we didn’t have a lot of choice but the standard was very high and we all read the same books, knew the same illustrators. The publishing houses were huge and protected. Then came the 90s and capitalism. The old publishers couldn’t cope with the free market and collapsed. After ten years of very unimaginative publishing, people were asking for something more and by the early 2000s lots of small publishers were being created. We were lucky enough to graduate at a time when those publishers were beginning to have some success, and were in a position to try new things.’


‘we want to do the opposite of google’


They both write and draw, generally taking a chapter each, though in Maps, because of the huge amount of detail to each page, they worked on the spreads together. Their research involves working with many different specialists – Under Earth, Under Water for


TAP WATER


Where does it come from?


In some countries most of the water in cities is heated at a central power station, while in others, such as the United Kingdom, most water is heated by boilers at home.


Hot tap water has a temperature of 55–60°C.


Hot and cold water coming from the water treatment plant.


combustion fumes


whitetip reef shark


fuel – either coal or biomass (see page 23)


❶ 1200°C Picasso triggerfish


The fuel is ground to dust and fed into the boiler.


❷


The fuel is burned inside the boiler. This heats up the water circulating in the pipes, changing it into steam.


❸ water


The hot water from the tap and in radiators is heated by hot water from the thermal power station, but not mixed with it.


Sewage flows out this way (see pages 26–27).


boiler ❹steam T HERMAL POWER STATIO 500°C N ❺ turbine


After setting the turbine in motion, the steam cools.


The motion of the turbine produces an electric current (see page 23).


❻The steam condenses. ❼


The condensing steam heats the water, which flows in pipes to buildings in the city.


Hot water from the thermal power station flows into the radiators.


The water flows through the radiator, loses its heat and cools down.


soil


River Vistula


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