JULY 14th 2026, 6.45PM ONLINE MEETING
STEVEN HADDOCK:
The Radiant Sea
The Radiant Sea is a book which shows undersea life in a way that is rarely seen. With 200 photographs in five sections, it reveals the ways that animals exhibit transparency, pigmentation, iridescence, bioluminescence, and fluorescence. Captions and introductory essays show the science behind these dazzling phenomena, with most of the revelations based on the authors’ own research and photography. In this presentation, marine biologist and photographer Steven Haddock will take you behind the scenes of how the book came to be. Videos, and animations will bring the book’s photographs to life.
Steven Haddock studies marine diversity, molecular biology, and bioluminescence at the Monterey Bay Aquarium Research Institute and UC Santa Cruz. He specializes in fragile gelatinous animals that are abundant in the deep-sea and open ocean.
During his research expeditions, he uses scuba diving and submersibles to study the interactions between animals and has documented many bioluminescent species and behaviors for the first time. He uses genetic methods to reveal the relationships between organisms and to understand the proteins and chemicals that they use to make their own light.
He also runs the Bioluminescence Web Page (biolum.eemb.ucsb.edu), the citizen-science project jellywatch.org, and teaches computing to scientists at practicalcomputing.org. His work has appeared frequently in the New York Times, National Geographic, and on the BBC.
Most recently he has published a book of photos and essays called The Radiant Sea.
