Blue Machine: How the Ocean Shapes Our World

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This brilliantly organised account of it will change the way you see the world, and its colossal oceanic expanses. There is indeed a great blue engine, regulating the circulatory systems of our home world. It is, as Czerski puts it, the beating heart of the planet. Jon Turney, Arts Desk

BOOK OF THE WEEK: This beautifully written, sweeping guide shows how the deep movement of the seas have ruled our lives in unexpected ways over millennia. Tom Whipple, The Times A scientist’s exploration of the "ocean engine"—the physics behind the ocean’s systems—and why it matters. In this captivating and urgently-needed book, Czerski weaves a wonderful, watery spell, entwining spectacular science with poetic awe as she expertly guides readers through the workings of a vast, unfamiliar world. Moving and thrilling, The Blue Machine tells us about the seas but also makes us care: an epic love story that captures the ocean's beating heart. Jo Marchant, author of Cure and The Human Cosmos From space, our entire tiny Earth is a blue dot. Blue — the color of the ocean that blankets most of it, making Earth as we know it possible. Czerski’s] profound, sparkling global ocean voyage mingles history and culture, natural history, geography, animals and people.The Blue Machine is a point of departure, a map for further exploration. Not since reading The Diversity of Life by E.O. Wilson have I read a book as timely, salient, and informative. Todd L Capson, Science

Awash with fascinating facts. Helen Czerski writes with authority, passion, and an easy conversational style. You will want to be out there on the ice and ocean with her. I loved it." - Hugh Aldersey-Williams, author of The Tide: The Science and Stories Behind the Greatest Force on Earth In a book that will re-calibrate our view of this defining feature of our planet, physicist Helen Czerski dives deep to illuminate the murky depths of the ocean engine, examining the messengers, passengers and voyagers that live in it, travel over it, and survive because of it. From the Ancient Polynesians who navigated the Pacific by reading the waves, to permanent residents of the deep like the Greenland shark that can live for hundreds of years, she explains by way of vast currents, invisible ocean walls and underwater waterfalls how all have their place in the oceans' complex interlinked system.A warts-and-all portrait of the famed techno-entrepreneur—and the warts are nearly beyond counting. Earth is home to a huge story that is rarely told - that of our ocean. Not the fish or the dolphins, but the massive ocean engine itself: what it does, why it works, and the many ways it has influenced animals, weather and human history & culture. One thing is clear, this woman loves the ocean and anything and everything associated with it. The book is less of a novel than it is an outpouring of a life's research encompassing everything from the water cycle, to a history of trade routes, whale excrement, ocean food webs, the life of scientists working at the poles, deep ocean biology, plastic contamination, whale earwax, the transition from sailing to the steam-engine, and yes, more whale poop. It was very interesting, yet was also all over the place. The author includes huge amounts of information from the way the ocean moves, to the different depths and strata, she mentions how people have learnt to navigate and how humans have impacted it. We live in a world where climate change is often mentioned. I always think about climate change affecting the air quality, temperatures, rainfall and storms. The ocean is also affected by climate change and this is becoming more and more obvious as great swathes of ice are melting, we are experiencing more run-offs into the rivers and oceans and we are interfering with the delicate balance. The author brings all these elements and so much more to her book and it was a fabulous book to read and one that thoroughly enjoyed.