In the dark depths of the ocean, light flickers where you least expect it. This hands-on Harvard Museum of Natural History workshop on September 13 will explore the radiant worlds of bioluminescence and fluorescence—where creatures from bioluminescent marine microbes to fluorescent jellyfish shed light without a bulb in sight. We’ll zoom in to symbiotic microorganisms that use bioluminescence to camouflage their hosts from predators, and then zoom out to examine bioluminescent and fluorescent specimens from the Harvard Museum of Natural History’s collections. Along the way, we’ll uncover how organisms use this natural glow for communication, camouflage, and predation, revealing a hidden language of light in the natural world. To wrap up the experience, you will have the opportunity to create “living art” in a petri dish using fluorescent microorganisms as paint. Participants will receive high-resolution images of their art after the artwork has grown overnight. No prior science background is required to participate in this class. All attendees must be 18 or older. $35 for Museum members, $40 for nonmembers. Register at www.hmnh.harvard.edu

Ellie Rand is a recent graduate and Sophia Wiesenfeld is a current student in the Systems, Synthetic, and Quantitative Biology PhD program at Harvard Medical School. They both research microbiology and utilize fluorescence for a variety of experiments. Understanding where bioluminescence and fluorescence arose in the environment and how to manipulate it in the lab is a lot of fun, and they can’t wait to share it with you!