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A fascinating natural history for fans of Underland by Robert Macfarlane, 1492 by Charles Mann and Leviathan by Philip Hoare. Jack Lohmann reframes our relationship with the natural world, uncovering the many lives – and deaths – of phosphorus.
In 1842, Darwin's beloved botany professor, Reverend John Stevens Henslow, discovered the miraculous potential of phosphorus as a fertilizer. He hardly imagined that his countrymen would soon be grinding the bones of dead soldiers and mummified Egyptian cats to fertilise farms. Nor that his discovery would spawn a global mining industry, changing diets, lifestyle and the face of the planet forever.
Journeying across the flat expanses of Henslow's Suffolk to far-flung Nauru, an island stripped of its life force by this ravenous young industry, Lohmann sifts through the Earth's geological layers and eras, exploring our strained relationship with a life-giving element. Bold, lyrical, genre-defying, White Light invites us to renew our broken relationship not just with the earth but with our own death – and the life it brings after us.
Jack Lohmann is a science writer, originally from Richmond, Virginia. He currently lives in Scotland. White Light is his first book.
"White Light tells the history of life through an element's history. It is at once lyrical and exacting, clear-sighted and deeply informed – a beautiful book."
– Elizabeth Kolbert, Pulitzer Prize-winning author of The Sixth Extinction
"Last week, I had no interest in phosphorus; now, thanks to Jack Lohmann's ground-breaking book, I find life and death – the whole universe – within it. Every sentence in this deeply original work sparkles with astonishing facts, prodigious research, crystal clarity. White Light is a conscience-driven tour de force."
– Pico Iyer, author of The Half Known Life
"An effervescent – or I should say phosphorescent – debut from a talented young science writer. Jack Lohmann travels across time and space, from eroding English seasides to lonely Pacific outposts, and from 50-million-year-old fossil beds to modern factory farms, to explore how the humble element phosphorus underpins our world. By the end of the journey, you too will see this often-ignored element in a new light – the white light that underlies life itself."
– Steve Brusatte, bestselling author of The Rise and Fall of the Dinosaurs
"In this deft and radiant book, Jack Lohmann has achieved something quite rare: a work that is scientifically precise yet ethically expansive. Lohmann writes with assured wisdom, whether reflecting on Earth's biogeochemical history or on environmental justice. Who knew that a book about phosphorus could generate such profound material and spiritual insights into life, death, human suffering, and planetary flourishing?"
– Rob Nixon, author of Slow Violence
"Lohmann's beautiful book demonstrates that phosphate, a substance we do not think of in everyday life, tells us about our origin, the present and the future. This book reminds us of the meaning of life."
– Kohei Saito, author of Slow Down
