A painting is nothing more than light reflected from the surface of a pigment-covered canvas. But a great painter can make you see the depth, make you feel the underlying emotion, make you sense the larger world. That, too, is the power of science: to sense and convey the depth and dimensionality of nature, to glance at the surface and to divine the shape of the universe around us.

Song for the Blue Ocean: Encounters Along the World's Coasts and Beneath the Seas (ed. Holt Paperbacks, 2010) - ISBN: 9781429984263