The book attempts to make the general public sensitive to the beauty of imperfections in the context of technology, as well as show how the recognition of imperfections helps people to flourish in their social and professional lives.
Peter Townsend is an experimental scientist who has worked in academia, national laboratories and industry in 9 countries, gaining expertise on a diverse range of topics including solid state physics of imperfections, ion implantation, luminescence, glass, optoelectronics, photonics, archaeology, cancer detection, and photon detectors. He has published over 550 research articles and 8 books and holds honorary doctorates from the Universidad Autónoma de Madrid and The Bulgarian Academy of Sciences.