Dr. Marc Zimmer has written the first popular science book on an amazing new area of biotechnology, which will help fight cancer, create new products, and improve agriculture.

For more than one hundred and sixty million years, green fluorescent protein (GFP) existed in one species of jellyfish. In 1994 it was cloned. Now GFP is found in every conceivable plant and animal. Flatworms, algae, E. coli and monkeys have all been made to fluoresce with GFP. Today researchers are using this ancient glowing protein to pursue exciting new discoveries, from tracking the process of bacterial infection to detecting chemical and biological agents planted by terrorists.

A recognized expert in this field, Zimmer begins with an overview of the many uses of these glowing genes to kill and image cancer cells, monitor bacterial infections, and light up in the presence of pollution. He then discusses the biological reasons that glowing proteins first evolved in jellyfish and fireflies and looks at the history of bioluminescence and the dedicated scientists who devoted their careers to explaining this phenomenon. The story of how “glowing genes” were located, cloned and then mass-produced is in itself a fascinating tale.

Download our interview with Dr. Marc Zimmer, PhD

Links for Dr. Marc Zimmer, PhD:

Dr. Zimmer's page at Connecticut College

The Protein Data Bank