A Sea of Glass
It started with a glass octopus. Dusty, broken, and all but forgotten, it caught Drew Harvell’s eye. Fashioned in intricate detail by the father-son glassmaking team of Leopold and Rudolf Blaschka, the octopus belonged to a menagerie of unusual marine creatures that had been packed away for decades in a storage unit. More than 150 years earlier, the Blaschkas had been captivated by marine invertebrates and spun their likenesses into glass, documenting the life of oceans untouched by climate change and human impacts. Inspired by the Blaschkas’ uncanny replicas, Harvell set out in search of their living counterparts. In A Sea of Glass, she recounts this journey of a lifetime, taking readers along as she dives beneath the ocean’s surface to a rarely seen world, revealing the surprising and unusual biology of some of the most ancient animals on the tree of life. On the way, we glimpse a century of change in our ocean ecosystems and learn which of the living matches for the Blaschkas’ creations are, indeed, as fragile as glass.
A Sea of Glass Awards: National Outdoor Book Award, Smithsonian top Art-Science pick, and Rachel Carson Award (honorable mention)
A Sea of Glass Press Coverage: Scientific American, New York Times, Discover, Science Friday, The Guardian
New York Times Blog — Scientist at Work
In Pursuit of an Underwater Menagerie
Diving into the Coral Triangle
University of California Press Blog
Diving into Glass: Reflections on the Blaschka’s 150-year old Glass Menagerie
New Clues in the Search for the Blaschka Animals
Coral Reefs in the Age of Climate Change: Fragile as Glass
Medium — Blog
Coral Biodiversity is as Fragile as Glass
The Hill — Blog
The Domino Effect of an Underwater Disease Outbreak
CNN — Political Op-Ed
Coral Reefs Sending a Warning Signal