It’s about communication, spreading knowledge, and good lighting. As a member of Lighting Urban Community International (LUCI), Elisa is one of many across the globe advocating to use light as a tool for social, cultural and economic development. Before you develop your urban area, contact Elisa (or one of her colleagues from LUCI) and she’ll help you avoid bad lighting. Let’s get it right the first time!

Elisa Hillgen is a lighting designer, light artist and a lighting coordinator at the City of Jyväskylä, known as City of Light. She has previously worked in the field of building and interior design, and has over 15 years of experience in different fields of lighting. For the last 7 years, she has focused on urban lighting and light art projects. Her job as the lighting coordinator of Jyväskylä includes taking care of the dark time cityscape by organizing design projects and maintenance for urban lighting and working in the light festival team. She is also the LUCI Association contact person for the City of Jyväskylä, which is currently the president of the global network.

Connect with Elisa:

https://valonkaupunki.jyvaskyla.fi/en/city-light-jyvaskyla

https://www.linkedin.com/in/elisahillgen/

https://www.instagram.com/hilgelli/

Rachel comes to us from the Sea Turtle Conservancy in Florida. She’s doing her part to protect the turtles in so many ways. She helps to conduct code enforcement workshops for municipal enforcement officers around the state, and she is promoting wildlife-friendly lighting, by following key principles: keeping lights low, shielding them from view, using longer wavelengths, and minimizing unnecessary lighting. Her goal is to reduce light pollution and its impact on wildlife, particularly sea turtles, by promoting responsible lighting practices. Rachel Tighe is a certified lighting specialist I in the lighting industry through the National Association of Innovative Lighting Distributors. Rachel has worked for environmental and conservation driven organizations for over 14 years with a focus in minimizing the anthropogenic threats to wildlife and the natural world. She has worked as the Lighting Project Manager for Sea Turtle Conservancy, the oldest sea turtle organization in the world, for over the past seven years. Rachel and her team work to mitigate problematic lights on sea turtle nesting habitat. Connect with Rachel: www.conserveturtles.org @conserveturtles Sponsor: Evluma www.evluma.com 

Highlights from the darkness news world are:

 - Night Shift Work is Bad for Your Memory

 - Giving Insomnia to Molluscs and Rodents

 - Circadian Lamps Go to Space

 - Progress on a Petition to Change LED Headlights 

Highlights from the darkness news word are:

 - Blue blocking lenses don't work

 - Municipal governments leading on bird safety

 - DarkSky's photo contest winners

 - Holidays are visible from space

LEDs came along in the early 2000’s. They emitted light. They were energy efficient. What could be bad? Ask Mark Baker who’s highly sensitive to certain LED lights. And there are people worse off than him who cannot neurologically tolerate the type of radiation emitted by LEDs. Imagine if you couldn’t go to a store or walk under street lights lest you get dizzy, acquire a migraine or fall into an epileptic episode. There are thousands of people who can’t leave their house, and now can't even replace their light bulbs with incandescents. And let’s not forget about the natural world where studies on the effects of LEDs have barely scratched the surface. Mark Baker is the President of The Soft Lights Foundation, a non-profit organization that advocates for the protection of people and the environment from the harms of visible radiation emitted by products that use Light Emitting Diodes. Mark is the primary author of a primer on the differences between a curved surface emitter and a flat surface emitter. His co-authors include subject matter experts in the fields of physics, engineering, medicine, and light pollution. Connect with Mark: www.softlights.org Soft Lights Foundation - https://www.facebook.com/groups/softlights.org Ban Blinding LEDs - https://www.facebook.com/groups/BanBlindingLEDs Petition to Ban Blinding Headlights: https://www.change.org/p/u-s-dot-ban-blinding-headlights-and-save-lives  

Our host, Michael, has learned a lot from reading children's books to his kids. Anna’s book, “Can You See The Stars Tonight?” we’re sure, is no exception. We are always hopeful for the next generation, so let’s teach our children about the impact of light pollution with Anna’s book. And you can’t go wrong with cute little puffins! Anna is a children's book author and illustrator who is passionate about animals and wildlife. She received a first class degree in Illustration from Sheffield Hallam University and a Masters in Children's Book Illustration from Cambridge School of Art. Anna's latest picturebook, “Can You See The Stars Tonight?” published by David Fickling Books, is a story about the impact light pollution can have on puffins and what we can do in our own homes to help our local wildlife when it comes to light pollution. Sponsor: Evluma www.evluma.com 

Find the latest news in the Restoring Darkness front. Highlights of this episode: - University of Pennsylvania Study Shows Staying Up All Night Might Help with Depression - Mice with High Blood Pressure Die Faster Under Circadian Disruptions - Melatonin-rich diet improves sleep Presented by The Lighting And Darkness Research Foundation https://restoringdarkness.com/donate/  

Dr. Darley gives us a new term (that we’re totally stealing!). Instead of describing light pollution to people as too much light, she feels people respond more positively to the problem if you describe it as a “darkness deficiency.” Dr. Darley goes on to explain the hazards of too much light - sorry, of a darkness deficiency - in your environment when you’re trying to sleep, like hormone imbalance, thyroid problems, and cancer risk. If you hold your arm out in the middle of the night and you can see your fingers wriggle, then there is not enough darkness in your room. Dr. Catherine Darley is the leader in natural sleep medicine. She combines her knowledge of sleep and circadian disorders with her training as a naturopathic physician to bridge these two fields. She’s treated patients for over 20 years, along with training healthcare providers in sleep medicine. Dr. Darley now focuses on teaching people sleep skills so they can thrive at home, at work, and have a high quality life. You can find her online at SkilledSleeper.com, on Instagram, and Substack. 

If bright light at night bothers you, it is much worse for marine life, and they don’t realize it, they just react. Their instinctual biological processes change in reaction to artificial light and sky glow which then affects the food chain. To add to that, the blue light from LED’s penetrates deeper into the water. The sky glow disrupts biological processes that are guided by moonlight. Dr. Davies and Prof. Smyth are doing the research. Now it’s up to us to take action. Dr Davies is a marine conservation ecologist at the University of Plymouth, UK working. His research seeks to understand the impacts and management of man-made global change on ecosystems, and human-environment interrelationships. He has published research on the impacts and management of a variety of global change issues - most notably Artificial Light at Night (ALAN). Prof. Tim Smyth is the Head of Science for Marine Biogeochemistry and Observations at PML. This involves leading a team of around 20 people ranging from PhD students to experienced senior scientists across a range of disciplines from air-sea exchange, nutrient cycling to molecular science within the broad remit of marine biogeochemistry. His brief also includes oversight of the Atlantic Meridional Transect (AMT) as well as the Western Channel Observatory (WCO) which he has been leading for the past 15 years. 

Harold Wallace, Jr., is curator of the Electricity Collections at the Smithsonian's National Museum of American History. Responsible for over 25,000 objects documenting the history of electrical science and technologies, Hal has specialized in the history of electric light and power since joining NMAH in 1995. Hal holds a Ph.D. in public policy / policy history, and an M.A. in the history of technology, both from the University of Maryland Baltimore County. He has curated exhibitions and written articles and blogs on the history of several electrical topics. His current exhibitions are Lighting A Revolution and The Electric Dr. Franklin. He serves on the Collections Committee of the Baltimore Museum of Industry and as Smithsonian representative on the board of the Thomas A. Edison Papers Project. Hal is a member the American Historical Association, the American Political Science Association, the Illuminating Engineering Society, and the Society for the History of Technology.