Efforts to identify the molecular basis for the novel fluorescence in jellyfish began with Osamu Shimomura’s studies of the Aequorea jellyfish in the early 1960’s. Located then at Princeton University, Shimomura traveled with Frank Johnson to Friday Harbor Laboratories at the University of Washington with the goal of developing a method to extract the light emitting components from the jellyfish, Aequorea victoria. The investigators observed that when the circumoral ring on the underside of the jellyfish, which contains the luminescent organs, was removed and squeezed through a sieve, the “squeezate” was dimly luminescent. In a heroic effort, involving the collection and processing of many thousands of jellyfish into squeezate, they isolated and purified a chemiluminescent protein that was subsequently named aequorin.