Awards

• Winner of Aventis Prize for Science Books 2001
• Winner of Aventis Prize for Science Books 2001.
• Winner of Aventis Prizes for Science Books: General Prize 2001
• Winner of Aventis Prizes for Science Books: General Prize 2001.

Overview

The scientific exploration of the ocean is an extraordinary story. Hundreds have climbed Everest, yet only two people have descended, in a homespun bathyscaph, to the very depths of the deepest sea chasm. Amazing oases teeming with life have been found in deep sea volcanic vents but we have hardly begun to identify their resident species. We know that sea currents control our climate but we don't know how. Ocean scientists are also pretty sure that we could reverse the greenhouse effect by manipulating plankton blooms with doses of iron...but fear we might trigger an ice age in the act. This book is a state-of-the-ocean report on the sea and its science. After amazing you with how little you know of the ocean, the author draws readers into a compelling narrative of oceanographers past and present - scientists, pioneers, maverick thinkers, deep-water divers and submersible pilots.

Full Product Details

9780953522712

Table of Contents

Reviews

Robert Kunzig has an epic saga to tell and he does it with flair and an infectious excitement. -- Maggie Gee Daily Telegraph Part history, part science book, part other-wordly travelogue, this is a magical mystery tour filled with wonders. Daily Mail An exhaustive and enthralling trawl of the ocean floor Sunday Times Kunzig values a good metaphor and knows how to tell his story in human terms ... a strange but rewarding poolside read for those unafraid of the deep end. -- Simon Garfield Financial Times Every popular science writer tries to bring new worlds into view; Kunzig's is especially compelling because his new world is so strange, yet so firmly linked to our own. Guardian Just when it seems Kunzig has told us everything interesting or significant, he dredges up more submerged gems. -- Richard Strickland American Scientist A remarkable book, both a celebration and a warning. -- Robin Davidson Robert Kunzig has an easy way with hard science ... he writes illuminatingly of the people and events on a frontier every bit as challenging as space. Glasgow Herald A really good read and makes what we do sound like fun! -- Everett Read, Editor in Chief, Limnology and Oceanography Artfully combines elegant writing with a facility for explaining science in plain English Oceanography

Robert Kunzig has an epic saga to tell and he does it with flair and an infectious excitement. -- Maggie Gee * Daily Telegraph * Part history, part science book, part other-wordly travelogue, this is a magical mystery tour filled with wonders. * Daily Mail * An exhaustive and enthralling trawl of the ocean floor * Sunday Times * Kunzig values a good metaphor and knows how to tell his story in human terms . . . a strange but rewarding poolside read for those unafraid of the deep end. -- Simon Garfield * Financial Times * Every popular science writer tries to bring new worlds into view; Kunzig's is especially compelling because his new world is so strange, yet so firmly linked to our own. * Guardian * Just when it seems Kunzig has told us everything interesting or significant, he dredges up more submerged gems. -- Richard Strickland * American Scientist * A remarkable book, both a celebration and a warning. -- Robin Davidson Robert Kunzig has an easy way with hard science . . . he writes illuminatingly of the people and events on a frontier every bit as challenging as space. * Glasgow Herald * A really good read and makes what we do sound like fun! -- Everett Read, Editor in Chief, Limnology and Oceanography Artfully combines elegant writing with a facility for explaining science in plain English * Oceanography *

This book starts at the very bottom of the vast ocean and slowly drifts up. It begins with an extremely detailed description of the sea bed, 'to show what the ocean might look like on a waterless day'. We float slowly past the summits of submerged seamounts, gliding through mid water, passing thousands of jellyfish. By the time we reach the surface at the end, we're literally gasping for air. Since its origins, ocean science seems to have been conducted by a cast of lovable eccentrics: the machines these men depended upon were no less colourful. The bathyscape is perhaps the most bizarre, named so for obvious reasons once you see the picture of it. Designed by Auguste Piccard, who held the record for the highest ascent in a balloon, in 1960 the bathyscape carried two scientists into the deepest chasm on Earth, the Challenger Deep of the Mariana Trench. This book explores and illuminates the light-deprived deep ocean. 'We live at a time when the outside chance of finding a fossil bacterium on Mars is enough time to generate tremendous enthusiasm for billion-dollar missions of exploration to that planet.And yet we are content to pass over in complacency and almost total ignorance 'the largest and strangest habitat on Earth' writes Kunzig.This book goes a long way towards shaking our complacency and alleviating that ignorance. Review by Dea Birkett Editor's note: Dea Birkett's latest book is Serpent in Paradise about Pitcairn Island in the South Pacific. (Kirkus UK)

Author Information

Robert Kunzig is a multiple award-winning science writer, and European editor of Discover magazine.

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