Scientific visualization has always been an integral part of discovery, starting first with simplified drawings of the pre-Enlightenment and progressing to present day. Mathematical formalism often supersedes visual methods, but their use is at the core of the mental process. As historical examples, a spatial description of flow led to electromagnetic theory, and without visualization of crystals, structural chemistry would not exist. With the advent of computer graphics technology, visualization has become a driving force in modern computing.
A Concise Introduction to Scientific Visualization – Past, Present, and Future serves as a primer to visualization without assuming prior knowledge. It discusses both the history of visualization in scientific endeavour, and how scientific visualization is currently shaping the progress of science as a multi-disciplinary domain.
Concise is right! The first 15 thousand (or so) years of humanity (French Cave paintings to the Middle Ages) are covered in 17 illustration-heavy pages.
I can't complain, however, as I was barely understanding some of the descriptions -- I am so woefully under-educated in contemporary scientific procedure that they could have made everything up and I would have accepted it.