John H. Postlethwait received his Ph.D. in developmental genetics from Case Western Reserve University and completed his postdoctoral fellowship in genetics at Harvard University. During a teaching career that has spanned more than 30 years, he has received several research awards and the Ersted Distinguished Teaching Award. Dr. Postlethwait now teaches general biology, embryology, and genetics at the University of Oregon and, is the coauthor of several college-level textbooks.

Janet Hopson received her B.A. in biology from Souther Illinois University and her M.A. in science writing from the University of Missouri. Ms. Hopson has taught science writing at two campuses of the University of California and has authored and coauthored several college-level biology textbooks and popular science books. She won the Russell L. Cecil Award for magazine writing. Ms. Hopson's news and feature articles have appeared in publications such as Science News, Smithsonian, Newsweek, Psychology Today, and Science Digest.