I did undergraduate degrees and a PhD in physics, and I read very widely, and yet when I came to the ocean after my PhD, I was pretty certain that no-one had ever really mentioned it before, at least not in a way that really conveyed what it was. I learned oceanography by working in the field, and it was noticeably hard to talk to anyone else about what we were doing because when I mentioned the ocean, people assumed that I must be a fish biologist, or study dolphins. They couldn’t conceive of studying the water itself. And yet the water forms a giant physical engine that dictates almost everything else on Earth. This is the biggest story on Earth. It is still incredible to me that I’ve never seen a popular science book that even attempts to describe the physical ocean engine. So it felt essential to write this book, and try to patch this gap in our collective knowledge. Czerski’s] profound, sparkling global ocean voyage mingles history and culture, natural history, geography, animals and people.

When next you go to the sea, study the colour of your bit of the global ocean. “The cool water off Nova Scotia is a foggy turquoise,” Helen Czerski writes, “lit by diffuse sunlight above and fading into darkness below. The fog is made up of tiny fragments of drifting organic life, individually invisible but collectively cloaking every resident in fuzzy ignorance of everything more than five metres away.” 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. Czerski’s fascinating new b The world needs a 'David Attenborough for physics' and Helen Czerski is a prime contender - she's brilliant, clear, passionate, modern and inspiring. Emma Freud, BBC Radio 4 Loose EndsAll of Earth's ocean, from the equator to the poles, is a single engine powered by sunlight - a blue machine. A dazzle of stories beautifully told.... Czerski argues throughout that to truly see the miraculous oceans, to understand and to feel our connection to them, is vital and integral to our history and our future. Her outstanding book advances that understanding and honours that connection. Her readers will see the seas anew. For serious sea enthusiasts or budding marine biologists then this book will be the perfect addition to your shelf. For me, it just didn't hit the spot that I was hoping for.

Although I was looking forward to the chapter on “voyagers” – and Czerski is passionate on the Hawaiian and Polynesian arts of canoeing and navigating at sea – it contains the only error I could identify. Comparing the operation of a sailing ship with that of a steamer or motorised vessel, and lamenting the loss of the human-ocean connection that tall ships demand of their crews, she writes:I feel kind of mean giving this book a three star rating, because for someone who is scientifically interested in the sea then this would be a 5 star for sure. Thanks to NetGalley and W. W. Norton & Company for providing me with a digital ARC in exchange for an honest review. Most importantly, however, Czerski reveals that while the ocean engine has sustained us for thousands of years, today it is faced with urgent threats. By understanding how the ocean works, and its essential role in our global system, we can learn how to protect our blue machine. This is a fascinating book and one that I read in chunks over several days. I thought this book was so well laid out and explained and I definitely closed the book at the end knowing I knew more now than I did before. The explanations made sense and this is what I really liked about it.