By journeying to the depths of the ocean to study bioluminescent sea creatures, Edie Widder, president of the Ocean Research and Conservation Association in Florida, has witnessed firsthand the strange, vibrant colours of deep-sea life. In a stroke of inventive inspiration, Widder has taken her work with bioluminescent life and applied it to the ongoing problem of invisible pollution, which is putting the world’s oceans and waterways in peril. A short documentary by the Academy Award-winning director Alex Gibney, Speaking With Light is a meditation on hidden problems, inventive solutions and beautifully simple science.
Director: Alex Gibney
Producer: Alexis Bloom
videoMathematics
After centuries of trying, we’ve yet to arrive at a perfect way to map colour
20 minutes
videoEcology and environmental sciences
Join endangered whooping cranes on their perilous migratory path over North America
6 minutes
videoEnvironmental history
In Kazakhstan, ‘atomic lakes’ still scar the landscape decades after Soviet nuclear tests
13 minutes
videoMeaning and the good life
Why Orwell urged his readers to celebrate the spring, cynics be damned
11 minutes
videoAnimals and humans
One man’s quest to save an orphaned squirrel, as narrated by David Attenborough
14 minutes
videoEarth science and climate
Images carved into film form a haunting elegy for a disappearing slice of Earth
3 minutes
videoBiology
Butterflies become unrecognisable landscapes when viewed under electron microscopes
4 minutes
videoAnimals and humans
Join seabirds as they migrate, encountering human communities along the way
13 minutes
videoBiology
‘Save the parasites’ may not be a popular rallying cry – but it could be a vital one
11 minutes