Join us on Monday, May 21st with author Juli Berwald on her New York Times Bestselling science memoir Spineless. SPINELESS: The Science of Jellyfish and The Art of Growing a Backbone by Juli Berwald is the “excellently timed exploration of the humble jellyfish” (Publishers Weekly) that will open your eyes to a world both rarely and often neglected—the ocean and its ecosystem.
After being neglected for much of the 20th century, scientists have only recently redirected their attention towards the mysterious lives of these sea creatures, and what Juli discovered in her research is astonishing: there are immortal jellyfish that have the ability to age forwards and backwards; giant jellies that weigh over 500 pounds; transparent beasts made of 95% water that produce the world’s deadliest toxins. She learned that in the last decade some jellyfish populations have exploded–massive blooms have appeared around the world and have caused profound damage. Groups of what are at times billions of jellyfish have shut down power plants and have devastated fisheries, costing millions of dollars in industry losses. In SPINELESS, Juli explores why this might be happening, and whether humans are to blame.