In graduate school, I studied a group of jellies called siphonophores. Most people had never heard of them, except for the Portuguese Man-O-War.

(I have now taught spell-check the word ‘siphonophores’)

As part of my research, I took pictures of my specimens. I knew nothing about photography, so my time in the field was a crash course on how to digitally capture animals built to be invisible.

The similarities between getting a good picture and learning to be a science journalist are illuminating.

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