Edith Widder

Edith Widder’s obsession with bioluminescence is, well, illuminating! Marine biologist, explorer and all-around-bad-ass, Edith Widder writes about her experiences studying something we know very little about: light in the deep sea. From her initial journey into the deep ocean, where she first sees the breathtaking view of underwater “fireworks,” to successfully communicating with (multiple) giant squid, the author shares her life’s work in a way that’s engaging, exciting and downright inspiring. In the book, we learn about hidden worlds, never before seen behaviors, and are shown how important bioluminescence is to both survival and communication—in fact, the ability to produce light is so critical to survival that it’s been selected for independently more than fifty times during evolutionary history!

In addition to some seriously interesting science, there were a few non-science quotes that also stood out to me. The first was Edith’s advice on how to look at the world a little differently:

“One way to open your eyes to unnoticed beauty is to ask yourself, What if I had never seen this before? What if I knew I would never see it again?”

The second was advice shared to her during a moment of extreme difficulty:

“You know, success in life depends on how well you handle plan B. Anyone can handle plan A.”

Between the astonishing discoveries and everyday inspiration, I had trouble putting this one down. This is only the beginning of understanding the weird and wonderful world of bioluminescence, so climb in, take the plunge, and remember to turn out the lights.… (altro)