In this spirited and engaging book, science writer Kunzig, an editor at Discover magazine, voyages among oceanographers, alive and departed, from dockside to textbook, and reports back on our current understanding, and often dubious treatment, of the world’s oceans. Seventy percent of our world is hidden by the oceans’ surface. The often great depths precluded serious study until recently, when sonar and probes and submersibles started to take its measure. Far from the barren wastes it was thought to comprise, Kunzig makes clear, the ocean is an unfathomably rich place, even in the cold, lightless crushing deep, where the diversity of species rivals that of a tropical rainforest. Kunzig starts by bringing readers up to speed on oceanographic thinking. For instance: no, the oceans were not formed by volcanoes, but rather by a torrent of planetoids that pelted Earth and kicked up blankets of steam. He goes on to profile scientists and their seminal work, from Henry Cavendish, the egghead archetype who discovered the composition of water, to the toilers in the oceanic trenches at Columbia University’s Lamont-Doherty Earth Observatory. He describes the wild denizens of the deep sea (porcelain-white crabs, the utterly bizarre sea cucumber), abyssal storms, the sea floor’s endless quadrille. He delivers a Cook’s tour of seawater in global circulation, forgives the lax morals of water molecules as they change partners billions of times a second. And Kunzig strikes a number of cautionary notes. Poised as humans are to exploit the ocean to its max, it would be wise to remember our boundless ignorance as to its workings. We have nearly fished cod to extinction, a fish once so plentiful that Vikings could practically use them as cobblestones from the Faroes to Newfoundland. A nimble, thorough introduction to the ocean in all its vast, untamable, and fearsome attraction. Kunzig’s flair should stir readers’ awe and allow them to share in his protective urge.
Pub Date: March 1, 1999
ISBN: 0-393-04562-5
Page Count: 384
Publisher: Norton
Review Posted Online: May 19, 2010
Kirkus Reviews Issue: Jan. 15, 1999
BOOK REVIEW
Though well-informed, this history of astronomy caters to the insider rather than the intrigued novice. Science journalist Croswell presents a history of the Milky Way focusing on the changing theories about its origin, age, size, and shape. He explains why some stars are more luminous than others and describes the discovery that key elements like helium, lithium, and hydrogen were formed ``in the fiery aftermath of the big bang.'' In early chapters he offers simple, elucidating metaphors to make his sophisticated material more familiar. But this kind of translation is quickly abandoned, and the book contains too much math and physics and too little explanation of how the theories connect and what's at stake to appeal to readers with little background in astronomy. It becomes clear that, as he writes, the story of the Milky Way is a ``deeply human story, full of colorful and controversial characters,'' but Croswell takes the stance of an insider rather than a journalist, providing only snippets and sketchy portraits. Some stories are fleshed out, like the collaboration of astronomers E. Margaret and Geoffrey Burbidge, William Fowler, and Fred Hoyle (commonly known as BÞFH) on the theory that the elements originated in the stars; the Nobel Prize that went to Fowler alone for this work; and the obstacles women faced breaking down the sexist barriers in astronomy. Croswell's narrative of these events provides a rare and welcome balance to his zeal for technical detail. This work will leave readers feeling as though they are looking at the heavens through the wrong end of a telescope.
Pub Date: May 1, 1995
ISBN: 0-385-47213-7
Page Count: 376
Publisher: Anchor
Review Posted Online: May 19, 2010
Kirkus Reviews Issue: March 1, 1995
In this sturdy if at times tortured field report cum memoir of a geochemical visit to a series of ice-covered lakes in Antarctica, Green takes measure not just of calcium, phosphate, and magnesium, but of his life and the mystery of nature as well. The McMurdo Dry Valleys of Antarctica host a string of lakes with which Green (Chemistry/Miami Univ., Ohio) has become mesmerized. What are their origins, what do they have to say about the nature of weathering and mineral transport, and what about those strange temperature inversions? Chemistry is Green's passion, and it is not only the chemistry of the lake and laboratory that we get in spades, but a pleasurable poke through the history of the science as well: Dalton and Rutherford, Einstein and Bohr, and dozens more. These asides nicely clarify his arcane fieldwork. Shedding further light are finely honed flashes of pure science writing—his discourse on the physical behavior of water is handled with impressive dexterity, as are the explanations of conductivity units and Klemmerer readings (both important aspects of his lake studies). While it may be forgiven that such a sere, remote landscape conjures repeat visits to Green's family history, it is when Green gets mystical that he crashes through the thin ice of natura poetica. Readers are informed that ``the maple seed glides like a wooded blade in whispers from the parent tree,'' and that water ``punctuates waking and dream with longing.'' Say what? Such stuff is a squandering of Green's obvious narrative talents—his depiction of life at base camp is so grungily immediate, you can almost smell the body odor—and diminishes much of the pleasure this book otherwise has to offer. The clear south polar light, working its magic on Green's science writing, should have revealed to him that it was not his destiny to be bard of the crystal desert.
Pub Date: May 1, 1995
ISBN: 0-517-58759-9
Page Count: 288
Publisher: Harmony
Review Posted Online: May 19, 2010
Kirkus Reviews Issue: March 1, 1995
BOOK REVIEW
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