The SPARK Book Club will meet quarterly, and explore a variety of science related themes, including stories about the people, the discoveries, the struggles, and the life-changing innovations that brought us to today’s modern world. Book Club discussions take place quarterly giving you plenty of time to really dive into the reading list this year. The meetings will be an opportunity for community members to join together in a virtual space to discuss the quarter’s book. You are welcome to join one or all the discussions and participation is free but registration for discussions is required.
This Quarter’s Book: Brilliant: The Evolution of Artificial Light
Brilliant is a haunting evocation of human lives, offers a sweeping view of a surprisingly revealing aspect of human history – from the stone lamps of the Pleistocene to the LEDs embedded in fabrics of the future. Jane Brox plumbs the class implications of light – who had it, who didn’t – through the many centuries when crude lamps and tallow candles constricted waking hours. She convincingly portrays the hell-bent pursuit of whale oil as the first time the human desire for light thrust us toward an environmental tipping point. Only decades later, gas street lights opened up the evening hours to leisure, which changed the ways we live and sleep and the world’s ecosystems.