Wendy Williams

“The ocean, after all, is not about stability but about change. Change is normal. Everything changes. All the time.”

“How many color patterns can your severed arm produce in one second?”

“Everything is octopusied.”

“Without an engine, Beebe's bathysphere dangled helplessly from the topside support ship like a ball of yarn suspended from knitting needles.”

“Cambrian animals were not particularly large at first, but they were plentiful and innovative. Jaws appeared. Eyes appeared. Nature began experimenting with weaponry.”

“The squid has even evolved a special place to house the bacteria - a structure scientists call a 'light organ' located inside the mantle. But the bacteria don't just set up house and begin to party. When the first batch of bacteria arrive in their new digs, they have work to do.The light organ has been partially prepared for the bacteria's arrival, but the final touches won't occur until the newly arrived bacteria get things started. It's as though they've arrived in a new house but only the frame is up. The bacteria themselves have to do the finish work.”

“Sometimes the dendrites leading into the nonsensory neuron are so plentiful that, under a microscope, they look very much like a richly branched coral, or perhaps like a piece of finely tatted lace”

“The dissection started out smoothly enough. Several boys lifted the thawed carcass out of its container and put it on the lab table. Then a line of girls elbowed their way in to form a phalanx at the dissecting table. They looked like groupies in a mosh pit. There was no room in the front line for the boys, who stood behind and watched, arms folded across their chests....One girl spent most of her time in a trancelike state picking the sharp little rings out of the squid's suckers. She was deeply intent on trying to harvest as many of the toothed rings as possible. Later that day she went home and shocked her mother by saying she wanted to switch her career goal from baking to marine science.”