Have you heard of the incredible “superpowers” of spineless creatures such as corals stronger than steel, or sponges who create their own chemical compounds to fight off disease? Their amazing abilities might just hold the key to our own survival, says marine ecologist Drew Harvell, professor emerita of Ecology and Evolutionary Biology.

Join us for a live, hybrid, Chats in the Stacks book talk with Harvell as she dives into the world of underwater marvels and her latest publication, The Ocean's Menagerie: How Earth's Strangest Creatures Reshape the Rules of Life (Penguin Random House, 2025). Harvell will discuss how ocean invertebrates, among the oldest and most diverse organisms on earth, are seemingly able to bend the “rules” of land-based biology with 600 million years of adaptation to problems of disease, energy consumption, nutrition, and defense, and how their biomedical, engineering, and energy innovations could inspire solutions to many issues facing us humans and our changing planet.

This talk is hosted by Mann Library.