About this item
What do giant squids, mantis shrimp, and fireflies have in common? These animals, along with a wide range of creatures, are able to give off light; this is called bioluminescence. Different species use different chemistries to bioluminesce, and they produce their light for a variety of reasons, including communication, hunting, and self-defense. Bioluminescence is a unique and fascinating adaptation found in the animal kingdom. Surprisingly, about half of all known phyla (a classification for animals that share the same body type) contain some bioluminescent species. Scientists don't yet understand all facets of bioluminescence, but they have managed to harness the glow and use it in a myriad of ways. One of the most important applications involves using bioluminescence as a microscope in medical studies. For example, laboratory scientists can inject bioluminescent proteins into malaria parasites to track the path by which the disease is spread from a mosquito to the animal it bites. Bioluminescent proteins are also helping researchers learn more about cancer, HIV and other viruses, and complex neurological processes. In fact, bioluminescent proteins are so useful to twenty-first-century medicine that two groups of scientists, one in 2008 and the other in 2014, were awarded the Nobel Prize in Chemistry for their work with these proteins and related technologies. Even artists and fashion designers use bioluminescence in their work to create glowing, light-sensitive paintings and clothing lines. Author Marc Zimmer, a world-renowned specialist in fluorescent proteins, takes readers on a glowing journey into the frontiers of bioluminescence.
About the Author
Marc Zimmer (@lightupscience) was born in a small town in South Africa. He wanted to be a game warden when he grew-up, but his mother wanted him to be a medical doctor. Although his handwriting is worthy of prescription pads he went to university with the intent of becoming game ranger. However, his dreams of looking after herds of elephants were terminated by an introductory botany course, which he failed. Fortunately he discovered the joy and fascination of playing with molecules. This resulted in a change in majors from biology to chemistry. While at the University of Witwatersrand he somehow managed to pass chemistry and find his future wife, Dianne, or perhaps she found him. Partly out of interest and partly out of a need to avoid the South African (apartheid) military service he came to the United States, where he got his Ph.D. in chemistry from Worcester Polytechnic Institute and did his post-doc at Yale University. He has been at Connecticut College for the last 20 years where he teaches chemistry and studies the proteins involved in producing light in jellyfish and fireflies. He has given talks about his research in India, Cuba, South Africa, all over Europe and the United States of America. Marc is married, has two children, Matthew and Caitlin, and 3 genetically modified fluorescent axolotls called Pliny, Edgar and Maximillian. He is currently working on a book entitled "Illuminating Disease". Marc has published over 60 research papers about cow flatulence, computational chemistry and bioluminescence in fireflies and jellyfish. His research on Green Fluorescent Protein is funded by the Research Corporation, Dreyfus Foundation and National Institute of Health.
