Wade Davis, in his book Light At the Edge of the World: A Journey Through the Realm of Vanishing Cultures, takes us around the globe to visit ancient cultures, from the rainforests of the Amazon to the deserts of Burkina Faso. Light At the Edge of the World serves as a springboard into a forum discussion on ways we can ensure that cultural and biological diversity don't vanish forever. Davis is an anthropologist, botanical explorer, and best-selling author who received his PhD in ethnobotany from Harvard University. He spent over three years in the Amazon and Andes as a plant explorer, living among 15 indigenous groups in eight Latin American nations while making some 6,000 botanical collections. His previous books include Shadows in the Sun (1998), One River(1996), Passage of Darkness (1988) and The Serpent and the Rainbow (1986), an international best-seller that appeared in ten languages and was later adapted by Universal Studios into a motion picture.
