This oversized model represents a jack-o-lantern mushroom around…
This oversized model represents a jack-o-lantern mushroom around 40 times the mushroom’s actual size. The smaller mushrooms grow on decaying wood in the forests of eastern North America. In one of these types of mushrooms, the honey mushroom, only the mycelia—root-like branches that run through the wood—glow with an eerie light known as foxfire.
Denis Finnin
This section of the exhibition evokes an evening lit by fireflie…
This section of the exhibition evokes an evening lit by fireflies, all signaling to one another in their species-specific “language of light.”
Photographer Tsuneaki Hiramatsu combined slow–shutter speed ph…
Photographer Tsuneaki Hiramatsu combined slow–shutter speed photos to produce stunning images of firefly signals. This image was photographed in Okayama prefecture, Japan.
Denis Finnin
This interactive environment introduces visitors to the brillian…
This interactive environment introduces visitors to the brilliant light displays of Mosquito Bay on Vieques Island in Puerto Rico, where high concentrations of microscopic dinoflagellates create a glowing halo around anything that moves through the water.
Denis Finnin
This large-scale, day-and-night interactive image shows the Caym…
This large-scale, day-and-night interactive image shows the Cayman Islands’ Bloody Bay Wall, a species-rich coral wall that is home to many bioluminescent and biofluorescent animals. Still relatively pristine, Bloody Bay Wall drops down 1,000 feet.
Denis Finnin
When this jellyfish–crystal jelly (Aequorea victoria)– is poke…
When this jellyfish–crystal jelly (Aequorea victoria)– is poked or jostled, spots on its rim light up like an emerald necklace. Its mysterious glow is both bioluminescent and fluorescent. Inside its miniature light organs, a chemical reaction makes blue bioluminescent light, and a fluorescent molecule turns the blue light to green.
On view through Jan. 6, 2103, at the American Museum of Natural History in New York City, “Creatures of Light: Nature’s Bioluminescence” explores one of nature’s most fascinating topics: an organism’s ability to produce light. Although there are a few land-based organisms, such as fireflies, that possess the capability to glow, the ability to generate light through chemical reaction is most common among plants and animals that live deep in the ocean (below 700 meters).
The exhibit is a fantastic journey into another universe of species. Divided into eight areas—Introduction, a Summer’s Night, a Mysterious Cave, a Sparkling Sea, Night Dive, Altered Light, Borrowed Light, and the Deep Ocean—visitors are taken from land to the deep sea in pursuit of these amazing creatures. An accompanying soundtrack composed for the exhibit adds acoustical delight to match the images and interactive displays.
Whether you’re a child or an adult, a science novice or a lighting professional, this exhibit will educate, fascinate, and inspire. And while the scientific explanations are provided throughout, one still can’t help but ask: How does nature do that? Details at amnh.org.
Elizabeth Donoff is Editor-at-Large of Architectural Lighting (AL). She served as Editor-in-Chief from 2006 to 2017. She joined the editorial team in 2003 and is a leading voice in the lighting community speaking at industry events such as Lightfair and the International Association of Lighting Designers Annual Enlighten Conference, and has twice served as a judge for the Illuminating Engineering Society New York City Section’s (IESNYC) Lumen Award program. In 2009, she received the Brilliance Award from the IESNYC for dedicated service and contribution to the New York City lighting community. Over the past 11 years, under her editorial direction, Architectural Lighting has received a number of prestigious B2B journalism awards. In 2017, Architectural Lighting was a Top Ten Finalist for Magazine of the Year from the American Society of Business Publication Editors' AZBEE Awards. In 2016, Donoff received the Jesse H. Neal Award for her Editor’s Comments in the category of Best Commentary/Blog, and in 2015, AL received a Jesse H. Neal Award for Best Media Brand (Overall Editorial Excellence).Prior to her entry into design journalism, Donoff worked in New York City architectural offices including FXFowle where she was part of the project teams for the Reuters Building at Three Times Square and the New York Times Headquarters. She is a graduate of Bates College in Lewiston, Me., and she earned her Master of Architecture degree from the School of Architecture at Washington University in St. Louis.
