Luminous creatures: the history and science of light production in living organisms

Prologue

Part one: Groping in the dark. 1. Glows, flashes, and marvel-mongers ; 2. The Age of Enlightenment ; 3. A deeper probing of nature aglow

Part two: The lights beneath the surface. 4. The birth of scientific ocean exploration ; 5. The mystery of a lit underworld ; 6. Inside the light-producing organs

Part three: Opening up new vistas of research. 7. Paolo Panceri and the Italian cohort ; 8. Raphaël Dubois and the chemistry of living light ; 9. Bioluminescence spreads further afield

Part four: The American ascendancy. 10. E. Newton Harvey and the Princeton Laboratory ; 11. The triumph of the biochemists ; 12. Through a glass, brightly

William Beebe's bathysphere

Part five: Off centre stage. 13. The peculiar career of Yata Haneda ; 14. Circling the luminaries ; 15. A bioluminesence expedition

Part six: The leap to current understanding. 16. Probing oceanic bioluminescence ; 17. Understanding how light sources are controlled ; 18. Unravelling molecular mechanisms

Epilogue.