I know, I know, book reviews are so seventh grade. But I am making a conscious effort, both to read more and to actively engage with the media I consume. So, I thought writing down a few tid bits about each of the books I conquer this year might help me and promote some great popular science literature that I think everyone should get around!
The nitty-gritty details:
Title: Spineless: The Science of Jellyfish and the Art of Growing a Backbone
Author: Juli Berwald
Theme:
Jellyfish, general scientific concepts, academia and beyond, motherhood, self-discovery
Target audience:
Everyone
Overall thoughts:
Part travelogue, part memoir, part deep-dive (literally) into the world of jellyfish… Spineless should serve as inspiration for all of us to advocate for research and understanding of the current climate emergency from the perspective of our gelatenous sea-bound dinosaurs. Masterfully intertwined with recounts of her international jelly-finding adventures are details of Berwald’s quest to reclaim a creative space in the midst of family life.
We may span different generations, geographical locations and scientific fields – but I felt an undeniable sense of commeradery and connection with the sentiments throughout this book. Many times along the way I found myself grateful that there was someone else with shared experiences of academia. I also found comfort in the seeming inevitability of her attraction to science. It was so incredible to hear how one person can navigate the complicated spiderweb of academia to pursue a true thirst for knowledge.
Overall, this was a fascinating read for scientists and non-scientists alike. Contemporary, lighthearted and enlightening with amazing illustrations to boot.
Some of the best bits*:
What is clear is that the more we learn about these animals from our deep past, the more we will understand about the gnarled evolutionary tree that supports all the animals in the world, including ourselves.
pg 82
As my kids progressed through elementary school, jellyfish had become my own alternative school, a place where my mind could play, and explore, and expand, the intellectual playground that I craved.
pg 84
Gene mutation is always seeking diversity, coming up with innovation, pushing boundaries.
pg 85
… asked him why so many jellyfish were transparent. He looked at me as if I’d asked him why grasshoppers were green. The question is, why isn’t everything transparent?
pg 96
Passion pushes our curiousity, drives innovation, and breaks through boundaries. Economics makes rules, sets boundaries, and forces compromise.
pg 101
While we usually think of domestivation in terms of animals and plants, GFP has essentially become a domesticated gene. By being so useful to us, this single gene has circled the globe, transferred from petri dish in one lab to cell culture in another to your neighbourhood pet store.
pg 118
… your orientation in the world is one of the most important things you can know.
pg 127
There’s something very democratic and modern about this multiple-pacemaker arrangement, evolutionarily ancient as it may be. It is a completely diffuse yet incredibly functional system. The jellyfish’s nervous system is smart without being consolidated.
pg 136
The more we think the same thought, the more neurotransmitters and receptors we produce at that synapse. And so it goes until the memory’s physical structure is a robust synapse, connected by the flood of neurotransmitters and a field of receptors.
pg 140
“information isn’t knowledge; knowledge isn’t wisdom”
pg 156
We have to move beyond this age of combustion… The jellyfish are an alarm that says we are mismanaging our ecosystem. They are a symptom. The cause is our stupid behaviour. And there is nothing else.
pg 161
Given the mighty forces that drive our planet – volcanism, plate techtonics, magnetic storms – … our penchant for focusing on small issues [is] infuriating. “The planet isn’t going anywhere … We are. Pack your bags.”
pg 161
Even though I was miserable, the decision to quit academics came with a considerable amount of guilt. The scientific community had made an investment of nearly a decade in me. It had pair me, albeit frugally, during my training. And I walked away from it. A piece of me always felt that I left a debt unpaid.
pg 167
The low points – not the moments of joy – were the decisive moments in my life. I had almost never made a change when things were going well.
pg 177
This wasn’t about being capable; it was about being willing. Making a difference would require our collective intention and effort. It would mean growing a spine.
pg 179
You know, maybe that’s where the hope lies. The recognition that we are all stuck here on this planet together. Maybe that fact will be what eventually gets us to clean up our act.
pg 210
My fear wasn’t something I would have admitted in my grad school days when I was trying to show that I could handle anything, that I had what it took, or what I thought it l=took, to be a scientist.
pg 216
Jellyfish had become a better-late-than-never vehicle for me to explore the threats to the ocean’s future. They’re a way to start a conversation about things tha can seem boring and abstract – acidification, warming, overfishing, and coastal development – but that are changing our oceans in fundamental ways.
pg 223
Experiencing the ocean’s brilliance first hand meant more than all my after-school lectures combined… Our kids need to understand what’s at stake too.
pg 278
The realisation that scientists need to roll down their sleeves and button up their jackets has dawned on the European scientists I met much more insistently than it has on those on the other side of the Atlantic.
pg 284
In the United States as well as Europe, there is an ongoing attack on science, a willful insertion of misconception into the public sphere. And that leads to policies that fly in the face of the data and reason.
pg 284
Letters to the editor, which seem such an archaic form of free speech in these Twittering times, actually get read in Washington.
pg 285
Raise your voice. By staying quiet, we are deceiving the public. The public deserves to know what’s going on in the ocean. We are being willfully myopic.
pg 287
If any of those things had happened differently, I wouldn’t be standing in this spot at this moment. Life may be a series of happy accidents, but I had never before had them all come together in one morning.
pg 290
Our dancing turns to fighting, often for the wrong reasons. We fall in love easily, but often with things that don’t matter or even harm us, things that numb us to the thousands of ever-more discernible darts we are shooting at our own planet. This can lead to terrible mistakes, even self-destruction.
pg 304
*Please note these are direct quotes from the reviewed material and do not represent independently conceived ideas.
Handy links:
Have you read Spineless, or have another science-adjacent book you can recommend? Find me on twitter or head over to the contact page to tell me more!
Image credits: Spineless cover photo here
