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The Dark Frontier

Unlocking the Secrets of the Deep Sea

A conversation between author Jeffrey Marlow and Kevin Hand, director of JPL's Ocean Worlds Lab, on the hidden world of the deep sea, whose secrets can revise our understanding of life itself.

Marine microbiologist and explorer Jeffrey Marlow takes readers on a fascinating journey into the deep sea in The Dark Frontier, exploring one of Earth’s last largely unexplored frontiers. Marlow reveals the remarkable life and ecosystems found in extreme environments, from hydrothermal vents and methane seeps to whale falls, while examining theories about the deep sea’s role in the origins of life. He also explores the growing tensions between ocean exploration and exploitation, including deep-sea mining and the challenges of protecting the high seas. Through stories from scientists, conservationists, and other experts, Marlow offers an accessible look at the wonders of the deep sea and what they can teach us about our planet’s future.

Copies of The Dark Frontier and Alien Oceans will be available at this event, and the authors will be available to sign.

“A brilliant scientist and storyteller, Jeffrey Marlow takes us on a page-turning descent into the deepest mysteries on the planet, revealing a world as strange, beautiful, and edifying as it is essential to our uncertain future. Though witness to the farthest reach of our destructive ways, Marlow leaves us with words of hope.”—Jack E. Davis, Pulitzer Prize-winning author of The Gulf: The Making of an American Sea

“This gripping trip to the bottom of the ocean doesn’t just explore many of the otherworldly mysteries lurking in a lightless universe;, it is an illuminating peek into something deeper yet - —the nature of life itself.”—Dan Egan, New York Times bestselling author of The Death and Life of the Great Lakes

“Jeffrey Marlow goes deep—really deep—beneath the sea to explore a world we can’t see and can barely imagine. The Dark Frontier is at once an adventure story, a tale of scientific discovery, and a plea for preserving one of the world’s most fascinating and fragile environments.”—Elizabeth Kolbert, Pulitzer Prize–winning author of The Sixth Extinction

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