In addition to working on curing cancer with his wife Elaine, Chandler Fulton, professor emeritus, is writing a children's book about penguins and adaptation, titled Cool Penguins."I'm crazy about penguins," the professor confessed in his office, which can be found deep within the bowels of Kosow-Wolfson, the biochemistry building. Fulton came to Brandeis fresh out of graduate school at the age of 26, and taught many subjects, including genetics for biology majors and graduate students, but evolution is his favorite.

After 45 years of teaching, Fulton retired last September, but remains at Brandeis working as a research scientist with Elaine, his "wife and partner and everything," whom he met at the University. She attended Brandeis for graduate school in the 1970s and stayed to work as a researcher, occasionally teaching a class as well. The two are currently researching the process known as programmed cell death, which is the manner by which bodies stay young. Neurological diseases, like Parkinson's and Alzheimer's iseases as well as many cancers, are caused when this cell death goes wrong. The Fultons and their fellow researchers have developed a way of inducing cell death, which they believe can be used for cancer therapy.

"When I retired," Chandler said, "I was thinking 'What do I want to do?' And you've heard about this whole argument about evolution versus intelligent design in school. Having taught that and having been very interested in the subject, the whole issue was disturbing to me."

He decided that what he needed to do was write a book on the topic, but became discouraged when he realized that the people who needed to read the book would have no interest in doing so. The solution came to him in the form of a comment from his daughter, who teaches the third and fourth grades in New Hampshire. In November 2005, she asked her parents to come teach her class about islands and the adaptation of the animals which inhabit them.

"We had a really good time and at the end of that, my daughter commented that there were no really good books for kids on biological adaptation; it's one of the core parts of evolution," Chandler said.

Sitting in a fast food restaurant on the way home, Fulton realized that he could write the book that his daughter wished had already been written. He planned to write it during a trip last December when he and Elaine embarked on a month long adventure to Antarctica.

"Elaine and I had gone before in 2000 for one week and we absolutely loved it. Just incredible, the black and white and the peace and the serenity," Fulton raved. "And I'm crazy about penguins. So we jumped at the chance to go for a long trip. The idea hit me that we're going on this trip anyway, so while I'm on this trip, why not write a book on adaptation and penguins for kids!"

In theory, the idea seemed perfect to Fulton, but the penguin enthusiast found he had little time to spare on the trip.

"It turned out that they kept us very busy," he said. "I took over 7,000 pictures; we were getting off the ship two or three times a day." This busy schedule left little time for writing, so he began in mid-January.

He now has a full notebook and a finished outline, but still needs to go through it from the beginning and put together together pictures and illustrations.

"It turned out to be a much, much bigger job that I thought. I am hoping to get it to my daughter's class so they'll have time to read it before the end of their school year in June."

Part of the challenge he said he has encountered is writing in a style that will young children can understand and enjoy.

"When I started, I thought it would be a very simple story which would just talk about penguins, and it actually turned out that I could tell the story of adaptation and evolution at a kid's level, which is very challenging," Fulton said. "So basically I'm going to do what I set out to do originally, which is to write a book about evolution for laypeople but actually give it to kids who will read it rather than adults who won't read it."

The book provides fun facts about penguins and how they survive in such inhospitable climates, including how they adapted to salt water. (They possess glands in their foreheads that remove the salt from sea water, allowing them to drink it without getting sick.)

Another miracle Fulton explains in the book is how penguins stay warm, which explains the title. Fulton says that they have a layer of blubber, like seals and whales, but their most important protection from cold is a waterproof down coat-literally! They have the highest density of feathers per square inch of any birds. The feathers are short and each have down at the base next to the skin, and then stronger feather barbs near the surface. Penguins preen every day to keep the surfaces of their feathers oiled, taking oil from an oil gland next to their tail. This way they keep their surface waterproof, so when they swim the water floats by the surface, leaving a layer of "warm" air and dry down next to their skin.

"That's why it's Cool Penguins. [Antarctica] is the coldest, harshest, meanest place," Fulton said.

Elaine Fulton said she supports her husband and thinks what he is doing is wonderful. She proudly showed off his awards, which include the Lerman-Neubauer Prize for Excellence in Teaching and Counseling and the Louis Dembitz Brandeis Prize for Excellence in Teaching.

"I think he has the perfect background to write this book," Elaine Fulton said, "with his knowledge of evolution, and his wide interest in science and biology. I'm looking forward to it."

Her husband agreed that this is his calling.

"I think it's almost the perfect use of my interest," he said. "The reason I became a biologist was because as kid, I became a bird watcher. That led me to biology. And here I am, playing with birds and evolution and all the things together. And I'm having a ball.