Invisible lines of connection run through all our lives, knitting them together. Those lines  burned brightly for me yesterday,  when I had the opportunity to meet John Buck’s daughter and his grand-daughter.

Elisabeth & John fashion a firefly cage in Papua New Guinea.

The Bucks spent a lifetime together researching fireflies (and enjoyed other insects, too!)

John Buck (1913-2005) was a towering figure in firefly science. He dedicated his life to deciphering how these luminous creatures manage to control their flashes, aided in his research by Elisabeth, his wife of 65 years. Deeply fascinated by firefly synchrony, they traveled to Southeast Asia to study how thousands of males manage to match up their rhythms. Continue reading →