Aglow in the Dark: The Revolutionary Science of Biofluorescence - Tapa blanda

"[A] beautifully illustrated book...The main narrative is riveting, and the authors capture the sometimes curious way that science progresses through an alternation of chance discoveries and systematic, goal-directed experiments. Students wondering whether they are cut out to become scientists ought to be encouraged by the diverse cast of characters involved in solving the mystery of bioluminescence...These are exciting times for biology, and this accessible and lively introduction conveys the sheer pleasure of discovery, as well as the enormous technological potential of fluorescent proteins." - Thomas G. Oertner, Nature"

In the early 1960s, in a small shack on the Washington coast, a young, self-educated Japanese scientist performed an experiment to determine what made a certain jellyfish glow. The substance he discovered, green fluorescent protein, would revolutionise molecular biology, transforming our study of everything from the AIDS virus to the workings of the brain. "Aglow in the Dark" follows the path that took this glowing compound from its inauspicious arrival on the scientific scene to its present-day eminence as one of the most groundbreaking discoveries of the 20th century.