I LOVE thinking about jellyfish swimming. It’s a call to realize our collective responsibility for the planet we share.Last week a producer from the BBC's show More or Less contacted me with a question from a listener: Can jellyfish swim as fast as an Olympic swimmer? (I'm guessing this question was in part spurred on by Michael Phelps', umm, race with a shark during Shark Week in 2017.)

She discovers that jellyfish science is more than just a quest for answers. 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 curiosity, and her passion for the natural world. She traveled the globe to meet the biologists who devote their careers to jellies, hitched rides on Japanese fishing boats to see giant jellyfish in the wild, raised jellyfish in her dining room, and throughout it all marveled at the complexity of these alluring and ominous biological wonders. Driven by questions about how overfishing, coastal development, and climate change were contributing to a jellyfish population explosion, Juli embarked on a scientific odyssey. Recent, massive blooms of billions of jellyfish have clogged power plants, decimated fisheries, and caused millions of dollars of damage. More than a decade ago, Juli Berwald left a career in ocean science to raise a family in landlocked Austin, Texas, but jellyfish drew her back to the sea. Yet until recently, jellyfish were largely ignored by science, and they remain among the most poorly understood of ocean dwellers.

Made of roughly 95 percent water, some jellies are barely perceptible virtuosos of disguise, while others glow with a luminescence that has revolutionized biotechnology. Their sting-microscopic spears that pierce with five million times the acceleration of gravity-is the fastest known motion in the animal kingdom. They make a venom so toxic it can kill a human in three minutes. Jellyfish have been swimming in our oceans for well over half a billion years, longer than any other animal that lives on the planet. Berwald's engaging account of these delicate, often ignored creatures shows how much they matter to our oceans' future.' - New York Times Book Review is a significant part of the environmental story.

'Witty, insightful.The story of jellyfish. 'A book full of wonders' -Helen Macdonald, author of H Is for Hawk

Spineless by juli berwald