Cover for Spineless

Spineless

The Science of Jellyfish and the Art of Growing a Backbone

Hardcover

List Price: 27.00*

* Individual store prices may vary.

Other Editions of This Title:
Digital Audiobook (xi/6/2017)
Paperback (xi/6/2018)

Nov 2017 Indie Next List

"Reading Spineless fabricated me call up of Nabokov'southward collywobbles: The discipline is distant to the extent that it feels almost extraterrestrial, simply the author's passion is contagious. The complication, the evolution, and the mystery of the organism grows on you, and, suddenly, you lot're excited about? well, jellyfish! Spineless gives climate alter a story, and with it some much needed empathy."
— Sarah Reif, Kramerbooks, Washington, DC
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Wintertime 2018 Reading Group Indie Next List

"Reading Spineless made me call up of Nabokov's butterflies—the subject is distant to the extent that information technology feels almost extraterrestrial, but the writer's passion is contagious. The complexity, the development, and the mystery of the organism grows on you, and, of a sudden, you're excited about… well, jellyfish! Spineless gives climate change a story, and with information technology some much needed empathy."
— Sarah Reif, Kramerbooks, Washington, DC
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Description

"A book full of wonders"—Helen Macdonald, author of H Is for Militarist

"Witty, insightful. . . .The story of jellyfish. . . is a significant office of the environmental story. Berwald's engaging account of these delicate, frequently ignored creatures shows how much they matter to our oceans' time to come." —New York Times Book Review

Jellyfish have been swimming in our oceans for well over half a billion years, longer than whatever other animal that lives on the planet. They make a venom and then toxic it can kill a human in three minutes. Their sting—microscopic spears that pierce with five million times the acceleration of gravity—is the fastest known move in the brute kingdom. Made of roughly 95 percentage water, some jellies are barely perceptible virtuosos of disguise, while others glow with a luminescence that has revolutionized biotechnology. All the same until recently, jellyfish were largely ignored by scientific discipline, and they remain amid the about poorly understood of sea dwellers.

More than a decade ago, Juli Berwald left a career in ocean science to raise a family unit in landlocked Austin, Texas, but jellyfish drew her back to the sea. Recent, massive blooms of billions of jellyfish take chock-full power plants, decimated fisheries, and caused millions of dollars of impairment. Driven by questions about how overfishing, coastal evolution, and climate change were contributing to a jellyfish population explosion, Juli embarked on a scientific odyssey. She traveled the globe to encounter the biologists who devote their careers to jellies, hitched rides on Japanese angling boats to see behemothic jellyfish in the wild, raised jellyfish in her dining room, and throughout it all marveled at the complexity of these attracting and ominous biological wonders.

Gracefully blending personal memoir with crystal-clear distillations of science, Spineless is the story of how Juli learned to navigate and ultimately embrace her ambition, her marvel, and her passion for the natural world. She discovers that jellyfish science is more than simply a quest for answers. It'southward a call to realize our collective responsibility for the planet nosotros share.

Praise For Spineless: The Science of Jellyfish and the Fine art of Growing a Backbone…

"Spineless is every bit mesmerizing, surprising, and beautiful as the jellyfish itself. Every page contains some astonishing treasure. If you cherish the ocean, if yous intendance about the environment, if you savor life on this sweet, bluish planet, you volition love this book." —Sy Montgomery,New York Times–bestselling author of The Soul of an Octopus

"Thoroughly engaging. . . . Berwald shows us a kind of natural science in which dazzler and wonder, scientific investigation and the varied shapes of human lives are bound closely together. I honey Spineless for that, and also for its inspiring telephone call to follow your ain star." —Helen Macdonald, author of H is for Hawk

"Berwald'due south engaging volume is part memoir, part pop science, weaving together stories of her own twisting academic path along with fascinating, vivid details about the delicate creatures." —New York Times Volume Review

"Office travelogue, function memoir, part deep-swoop (literally) into the earth of jellyfish...Spineless tin serve as inspiration for whatever of us to reclaim a creative space in the midst of family life." —NPR

"[Spineless is] fascinating... This combination of insider and outsider perspective is uniquely suited to a book on creatures whose internal organs are visible through transparent outer layers." —Wall Street Journal

"[Berwald'southward] sense of wonder is infectious and the book is a heartfelt plea for humans to fulfill their responsibilities toward nature." —New Yorker
"In this memoir/science-reporting mash-up, [Berwald] profiles one of the bounding main's most intriguing creatures—the unique contractions it uses to propel through water, its acidifying habitat and its booming populations." —Scientific American

"An astonishingly gorgeous book... Scientific discipline enthusiasts, curious animal lovers, and those who desire to educate themselves more on climate change'due south upshot on our oceans will detect this book irresistible." —W Mag

"Carefully and insistently, Berwald's book reveals to us that the earth is wider and vastly stranger than we know… This is a volume full of wonders." —New Statesman

"Berwald'due south articulate, delectable prose is attainable... The book forces the reader to reconsider the future of our planet, and of our role in information technology. It will, at the very least, exit you with a newfound appreciation of the translucent, spineless jellies." —Buzzfeed
"A wandering, compelling mixture of memoir and nature writing... [written with] articulate, stiff prose, a welcome help when dealing with the complex stew of biomechanics, chemistry and evolutionary theory that the subject field entails." —Texas Observer

"Breathtaking... What shines through this is Berwald's fascination with her subject, and the way it transformed a woman feeling stuck in her life and peckish a new purpose."  —Outside

"In that location is perhaps no more soothing sight than the illuminated jellyfish tanks in an aquarium. InSpineless Juli Berwald brings u.s. inside, unraveling a memoir about the scientific exploration of these strange, wonderful creatures." —Popular Scientific discipline

"Berwald offers an engrossing look at the enigmatic bounding main creature well-nigh easily recognised in its swimming 'medusa' class. . . . A revelatory scientific discipline memoir." —BBC Culture

"Information technology's a story of personal discovery, rediscovery of the underwater world, and an globe-spanning journey to study these circuitous creatures, all the while throwing into stark relief the importance of understanding and protecting our increasingly endangered marine ecosystems." —Southern Living

"Full of humor and intrigue, Spineless is a seaworthy saga chock with information most not only jellyfish but also nigh the health and future of the oceans and our planet." —BookPage
"Stunning memoir." —Bustle

"Captivating and informative." —Publishers Weekly (starred review)

"Unexpected and uniquely delightful." —Parade Magazine

"In this astonishing adventure of a book, Juli Berwald takes us on a personal journeying into the enchanting and mystifying aqueous world of jellyfish, and in and so doing, sheds low-cal on the vital ecological balances upon which our own survival depends." —Ruth Ozeki, author of A Tale for the Time Being

Riverhead Books, 9780735211261, 352pp.

Publication Appointment: Nov 7, 2017

About the Writer

Juli Berwald received her Ph.D. in Ocean Scientific discipline from the University of Southern California. A science textbook writer and editor, she has written for a number of publications, includingThe New York Times,Nature,National Geographic, andSlate. She lives in Austin with her husband and their son and daughter.