Gruber, David F.

PERSONAL:

Education: University of Rhode Island, B.S., 1995; Duke University, M.E.M., 1998; Columbia University Graduate School of Journalism, M.S., 2001; Rutgers University Institute of Marine and Coastal Sciences, Ph.D., 2007.

CAREER:

Journalist and oceanographer. Smithsonian Tropical Research Institute, staff member, 1995-97.

WRITINGS:

(With Vincent Pieribone) Aglow in the Dark: The Revolutionary Science of Biofluorescence, Belknap Press of Harvard University Press (Cambridge, MA), 2005.

Contributor to anthology Best American Science Writing, Harper Perennial (New York, NY), 2007.

SIDELIGHTS:

David F. Gruber is a science journalist and biological oceanographer. Gruber's interest in the tropical oceans was sparked while he was a student at the University of Rhode Island, noted biographer Laura Nelson on the University of Rhode Island Division of University Advancement Web site. There, "he spent a semester working on a research project on an island off the coast of Belize studying the fish that lived among the coral reefs." This initial experience with the environment of a coral reef led to a lifetime personal and professional interest in tropical ocean ecology. After a two-year stint with the Smithsonian Tropical Research Institute working in the rainforests of Guyana and South America, Nelson related, Gruber realized that his future would be found not on land, but in the beautiful, active marine environments of the tropical waters. After earning a degree in marine biology from Duke University and completing a fellowship at the Columbia University Graduate School of Journalism, Gruber combined work in science journalism and doctoral studies in oceanography to create a successful, evolving career as a science writer.

In Aglow in the Dark: The Revolutionary Science of Biofluorescence, Gruber and Vincent Pieribone explore the history behind science's search for answers to the mechanisms behind bioluminescence. The authors "reveal the painstaking efforts of scientists to identify the mechanisms behind this mysterious light," which has been observed in organisms as diverse as deep-sea fish and common fireflies, noted a Science News contributor. They survey the history of the science and research into bioluminescence, discussing the pioneering contributions of nineteenth-century researcher Raphael DuBois, who originated the terms luciferase and luciferine to describe the fuel and chemical reaction in biofluorescence. They describe how these compounds were found in a variety of glowing creatures, including the firefly, by Edmond Newton Harvey. They also report on how Osamu Shimomura, a young Japanese biologist from Nagasaki, isolated a bioluminescent protein called aequorin by dissecting and straining more than nine thousand jellyfish through the fibers of a cotton handkerchief. Shimomura's success spurred an increased interest in biochemical light, and Gruber and Pieribone describe how this interest has led to modern developments such as gene tagging, which allows scientists and researchers to directly observe cell-level phenomena such as the development of disease, the placement of tumors, the action of nerves and neurological connections, and the actions of genetic materials. "Writing with warmth and optimism, Pieribone and Gruber will fascinate budding biochemistry students," concluded Gilbert Taylor in a Booklist review.

BIOGRAPHICAL AND CRITICAL SOURCES:

PERIODICALS

American Scientist, September-October, 2006, Chris Brodie, review of Aglow in the Dark: The Revolutionary Science of Biofluorescence, p. 476.

Booklist, December 1, 2005, Gilbert Taylor, review of Aglow in the Dark, p. 22.

Natural History, March, 2006, Laurence A. Marschall, review of Aglow in the Dark, p. 62.

Nature, March 16, 2006, Thomas G. Oertner, review of Aglow in the Dark, p. 280.

Nature Cell Biology, Volume 8, number 11, November, 2006, Jennifer Lippincott-Schwartz, review of Aglow in the Dark, p. 1212.

Quarterly Review of Biology, December, 2006, J. Woodland Hastings, review of Aglow in the Dark, p. 389.

Science News, January 21, 2006, review of Aglow in the Dark, p. 47.

ONLINE

University of Rhode Island Division of University Advancement Web site,http://www.advance.uri.edu/ (February 26, 2008), Laura Nelson, author profile.