ORNITHOLOGICAL LITERATURE 
645 
beautiful. I would recommend it to both the casual 
reader of ornithological literature and the profes¬ 
sional. The author has done a wonderful job of 
melding what can become a dry and technical 
topic (the study of nest structure.) into the format 
of a so-called coffee table book. Unlike many 
books primarily designed to be beautiful, this text 
has solid scientific credentials and the ability to 
inform even those with academic interest in nest 
structure. Instead of displaying the book on a 
coffee table only to become unintended support 
tor lounging legs. I suggest a prominent place on 
an office desk. The pictures are likely to draw in 
anyone who casually thumbs through the book— 
while the well written, detailed text will surely 
inform even the most reticent reader. 1 plan to try 
this little experiment in guerilla education on 
some unsuspecting undergraduates in the near 
future.—MARGARET A. VOSS. Associate Pro¬ 
fessor. The Pennsylvania State University at 
Erie. Behrend College. 4205 College Drive. Eric, 
PA 14063. USA: e-mail: mavll@psu.edu 
avian coloration and vision requires them to go 
back to the basics and try to learn, or relearn, 
about the fundamental nature of light. The 
problem is that cutting-edge physical and chem¬ 
ical research is way too specialized, and that a 
typical physics or chemistry curriculum does not 
include the specific topics that are relevant to bio¬ 
logy. The process is bard, and the result is 
mistakes are made. I know from personal 
experience! 
The Optics of Life by Sonke Johnsen, of the 
Department of Biology at Duke University, seeks 
to till this intellectual need with an introductory 
but serious book on all aspects of light that are 
relevant to biology. Johnsen works mostly on 
marine invertebrates, and has made especially 
interesting contributions on the transparency in 
marine environments. Johnsen's research com¬ 
bines a real fascination with organisms and their 
functions, serious field work, and hard core phy¬ 
sics. His background makes him an excellent 
person to try to bridge the fields of organismal 
biology and optics. 
Johnsen's book takes a broad approach, and 
THE OPTICS OF LIFE: A BIOLOGISTS 
GUIDE TO LIGHT IN NATURE. By Sonke 
Johnsen. Princeton University Press. Princeton, 
New Jersey. USA. 2012: 336. ISBN; 978-0-691- 
13990-6. $99.50 (hardcover), ISBN: 978-0-691- 
13991-3. $45.00 (paper).—An exciting develop¬ 
ment in ornithology over the last 20 or 30 years 
has been a breadth of new research that takes light 
-seriously. It took a few decades lor the discovery 
of the four color cone visual system and 
ultraviolet visual sensitivity of birds to move out 
of physiology laboratories and into the conscious¬ 
ness of ornithologists working on communication. 
This was catalyzed by the production of the first 
affordable, broad spectrum liber optic spectro¬ 
photometers in the 1990s. Over the subsequent 
years, the science ol avian color and color vision 
has expanded tremendously. 1 he richness ol avian 
color vision and color communication insures 
these Helds will remain important, and that many 
more phenomena remain to be discovered and 
investigated. 
Research programs in this area must Irequently 
span ihe fields of ethology, behavioral ecology, 
physiology, chemistry, and physics. There are 
even conservation issues if you consider migrat¬ 
ing birds killed by colliding with buildings, 
towers, or wind turbines they have failed to see. 
Many ornithologists have found their research in 
incorporates all the optical phenomena that are 
actually occurring in biological systems and those 
that occur in the abiotic environment that influ¬ 
ence the functions of biological systems. The 
chapters cover the typical topics in optics 
emission, absorption, scattering, scattering with 
interference, fluorescence, and polarization—with 
special chapters on units ol light and the mea¬ 
surement of light... But the book is not like a 
traditional text in optics. 
Johnsen's treatment is both inviting and sophi¬ 
sticated. He introduces every idea with a carefully 
worded and straight-forward description, often 
with analogies to other real world experiences or 
ideas. He treats the mathematical details on a 
'need to know' basis, and usually goes no further 
than some simple algebra. Blit Johnsen has picked 
the details he does present carefully, and the sim¬ 
ple principles have profoundly important impacts 
on biological optics and how we study it. For 
example, Johnsen presents an equation to describe 
the optics of vision that is the product of four 
terms, but he then spends four full pages describ¬ 
ing the equation and unfolding what this relation¬ 
ship means. 
The Optics of Life is also quirky and funny. 
Johnsen introduces the discussion ol optical 
absorption with a story about how, when he was 
a child, different parts of the family's Dodge Dart 
