Artist Eleanor Lutz is taking a year off of college to see if she can combine her two passions: biology and design. Her result? A rendition of the tree of life featuring notable bioluminescent organisms.

Bioluminescence is a big word meaning light produced via chemical reactions inside an organism. Everything from mushrooms to fireflies produce light from within. Some organisms use it to attract mates, others to attract prey, and other still have no discernible purpose (that we can think of at least). To make the awesome chart below (which you can get in a poster version), Lutz used 200 sources and a 500-page textbook:

Click to enlarge!

You’ll find a lot of infographics around the web that have a lot of pizazz but no substance. Lutz’s work obviously doesn’t fall into this category. She has used her knowledge of biology to craft a visually appealing and deeply informative piece of art that will teach you much more than another “10 things you didn’t know about whatever” infographic.

Follow Lutz’s continued quest to distill complicated science into digestible imagery at Tabletop Whale.

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IMAGES: The Bioluminescent Tree of Life by Eleanor Lutz