To see accurate pricing, please choose your delivery country.
 
 
United States
£ GBP
All Shops

British Wildlife

8 issues per year 84 pages per issue Subscription only

British Wildlife is the leading natural history magazine in the UK, providing essential reading for both enthusiast and professional naturalists and wildlife conservationists. Published eight times a year, British Wildlife bridges the gap between popular writing and scientific literature through a combination of long-form articles, regular columns and reports, book reviews and letters.

Subscriptions from £33 per year

Conservation Land Management

4 issues per year 44 pages per issue Subscription only

Conservation Land Management (CLM) is a quarterly magazine that is widely regarded as essential reading for all who are involved in land management for nature conservation, across the British Isles. CLM includes long-form articles, events listings, publication reviews, new product information and updates, reports of conferences and letters.

Subscriptions from £26 per year
Academic & Professional Books  Organismal to Molecular Biology  Animals: Invertebrate Zoology

Luminous Creatures The History and Science of Light Production in Living Organisms

By: Michel Anctil(Author)
467 pages, 56 b/w photos and b/w illustrations
Luminous Creatures
Click to have a closer look
Average customer review
  • Luminous Creatures ISBN: 9780773553125 Hardback Jun 2018 In stock
    £40.99
    #239257
Price: £40.99
About this book Contents Customer reviews Biography Related titles

About this book

Naturalists in antiquity worked hard to dispel fanciful ideas about the meaning of living lights, but remained bewildered by them. Even Charles Darwin was perplexed by the chaotic diversity of luminous organisms, which he found difficult to reconcile with his evolutionary theory. It fell to naturalists and scientists to make sense of the dazzling displays of fireflies and other organisms. In Luminous Creatures Michel Anctil shows how mythical perceptions of bioluminescence gradually gave way to a scientific understanding of its mechanisms, functions, and evolution, and to the recognition of its usefulness for biomedical and other applied fields.

Following the rise of the modern scientific method and the circumnavigations and oceanographic expeditions of the eighteenth and nineteenth centuries, biologists began to realize the diversity of bioluminescence's expressions in light organs and ecological imprints, and how widespread it is on the planet. By the end of the nineteenth century an understanding of the chemical nature and physiological control of the phenomenon was at hand. Technological developments led to an explosion of knowledge on the ecology, evolution, and molecular biology of bioluminescence.

Luminous Creatures tracks these historical events and illuminates the lives and the trail-blazing accomplishments of the scientists involved. It offers a unique window into the awe-inspiring, phantasmagorical world of light-producing organisms, viewed from the perspectives of casual observers and scientists alike.

Contents

Acknowledgments • vii
Prologue • ix

PART ONE: GROPING IN THE DARK
1 Glows, Flashes, and Marvel-Mongers • 3
2 The Age of Enlightenment • 17
3 A Deeper Probing of Nature Aglow • 27

PART TWO: THE L IGHTS BENEATH THE SURFACE
4 The Birth of Scientific Ocean Exploration • 57
5 The Mystery of a Lit Underworld • 85
6 Inside the Light-Producing Organs • 108

PART THREE: OPENING UP NEW VISTAS OF RESEARCH
7 Paolo Panceri and the Italian Cohort • 139
8 Raphaël Dubois and the Chemistry of Living Light • 163
9 Bioluminescence Spreads Further Afield • 181

PART FOUR: THE AMERICAN ASCENDANCY
10 E. Newton Harvey and the Princeton Laboratory • 225
11 The Triumph of the Biochemists • 250
12 Through a Glass, Brightly - William Beebe’s Bathysphere • 269

PART FIVE : OFF CENTRE STAGE
13 The Peculiar Career of Yata Haneda • 287
14 Circling the Luminaries • 308
15 A Bioluminescence Expedition • 336

PART SIX: THE L EAP TO CURRENT UNDERSTANDING
16 Probing Oceanic Bioluminescence • 351
17 Understanding How Light Sources Are Controlled • 374
18 Unravelling Molecular Mechanisms • 388

Epilogue • 405
Bibliography • 411
Index • 461

Customer Reviews (1)

  • An informative history of bioluminescence research
    By Leon (NHBS Catalogue Editor) 3 Dec 2018 Written for Hardback


    Beetles do it. As do fish. And squid, sharks, jellyfish, salps, dinoflagellates, and a host of other invertebrates. Bioluminescence, the production of light by living organisms, is one of nature’s most awe-inspiring spectacles and has fascinated humans since time immemorial. Luminous Creatures, written by bioluminescence researcher Michel Anctil, is a chunky book that charts the history of scientific research on this phenomenon by examining the lives and achievements of many of the key players involved. Along the way, it lifts the lid on many of the wondrous details of bioluminescence.

    The prologue of the book pleasingly situates it in the wider literature and Anctil very explicitly mentions other books on the topic, and how his book differs. Probably the biggest caveat for readers is that this book is less about the biology and more about the history of scientific research on this bioluminescence. Luckily, the biology has been adequately covered in two recent books, Bioluminescence: Living Lights, Lights for Living, which is quite heavy on the biochemical details, and Fireflies, Glow-Worms, and Lightning Bugs which, although part identification guide to these insects, also contains plenty of information on the biology of bioluminescence. And if you really want to know the hardcore technical details, there is always Bioluminescence: Chemical Principles and Methods. This leaves Anctil free to focus on the history of the science.

    The book follows a largely chronological format, starting with the earliest observations during Antiquity, the Renaissance and the Age of Enlightenment. Naturalists in these periods recorded observations of glowing insects and fish, and sailors and mariners were familiar with the sight of luminescent waters. There was plenty of speculation and superstition, but little in the way of experimental work to elucidate details. That had to wait until oceanography as a scientific discipline took off.

    As explorations were mounted to map the sea bottom, scientists discovered the many bizarre denizens of the deep (see my review of Deep-Sea Fishes, and pictorial works such as Creatures of the Deep). And with it, they discovered a hitherto unknown world where bioluminescence was far more plentiful than anyone could have ever imagined. Notable in this regard was the work of William Beebe and Otis Barton, who in the 1930s lowered themselves into the deep in a bathysphere, and observed this first-hand (see Descent: The Heroic Discovery of the Abyss).

    But, by and large, biologists relied on fish and other creatures brought up from the deep and Anctil charts the early anatomical research on the structure of light-producing organs and the long research programme on the biochemical details of how light is produced. Although this research extended to terrestrial insects, overwhelmingly, bioluminescence turned out to be associated with the deep sea.

    Anctil excerpts material from obituaries, memoirs, books, correspondence, and archives (all carefully and explicitly attributed) to thread together biographical vignettes of numerous important scientists. By detailing their lives, interests, and careers, he reveals their professional victories and setbacks, their academic quarrels and personal quirks, and their academic legacy and influence on future scholars. Prominently featured are the Italian anatomist Paolo Panceri, the French biochemist Raphaël Dubois, the American zoologist Edmund Newton Harvey, and the Japanese biologist Yata Haneda. Especially Harvey has been incredibly influential, leading a successful research laboratory in Princeton that trained many influential future scientists.

    Using a chronological format allows Anctil to explore outdated ideas that were superseded as our understanding grew. For example, Panceri thought that the luminescence was caused by the reaction between a fatty substance and oxygen, and that nerve cells were a source of light, while Dubois had several changes of heart during his career as to the nature and number of chemical compounds that cause luminescence. Technological developments were instrumental in advancing our knowledge, and, as with plate tectonics, the military and the navy have been unexpected research partners at times. Their interest was in the effect of bioluminescence and the mass movement of bioluminescent organisms in the water column on submarines and sonar.

    Although Anctil has neatly structured the book, I occasionally got somewhat overwhelmed by the sheer number of names introduced. Plenty of period portraits are included to put faces to the most important names, but I would have loved an illustrated timeline to relate these researchers and their achievements to each other.

    The book is not all history though, and the biological details are diffusely woven throughout. Questions of biochemistry and physiology (the “how” questions) have dominated research on bioluminescence, and Anctil provides plenty of details on the chemistry responsible for light production and the physiological and neurological mechanisms to activate light-producing organs. Questions of function (the “why” questions) have seen plenty of (informed) speculation but are far harder to study. Communication, sexual displays, species recognition, deception or confusion of predators, luring of prey, camouflage by counter-illumination (graphically explained in Eyes to See) – these and other explanations are generally given as to why animals produce light (see also The Biology of the Deep Ocean). The evolution of bioluminescence is another outstanding matter and one that is only briefly touched upon here. Finally, the biotechnological applications and the story of how green fluorescent protein became a workhorse in molecular biology are only cursorily mentioned. For that, you can turn to Chemiluminescence and Bioluminescence.

    With above remarks I am not faulting Luminous Creatures for not being “the-complete-book-on-bioluminescence”. That would rather miss the point as Anctil clearly outlines and delimits the scope of this book and refers readers to the appropriate literature. Instead, this is an incredibly well researched and informative book on our enduring fascination with living lights specifically, and on the history of marine biology and oceanography more generally.
    Was this helpful to you? Yes No

Biography

Michel Anctil is honorary professor of biology at Universite de Montreal and author of Dawn of the Neuron: The Early Struggles to Trace the Origin of Nervous Systems.

By: Michel Anctil(Author)
467 pages, 56 b/w photos and b/w illustrations
Media reviews

"A fresh and welcome perspective on bioluminescence knowledge, especially before the Second World War, Luminous Creatures provides a window into the evolution of a fascinating aspect of natural history through recorded time."
– James Morin, Cornell University

"Engagingly written and informative, Luminous Creatures covers the history of observations and research in connection with the phenomenon of bioluminescence through the ages, providing the reader not only with a chronology of scientific advances in the field but also with glimpses into the lives of some of the key researchers of living lights."
– Victor Benno Meyer-Rochow, Research Institute of Luminous Organisms, Hachijojima, Tokyo

Current promotions
New and Forthcoming BooksNHBS Moth TrapBritish Wildlife MagazineBuyers Guides