Riveting.... The cultural history fascinates.... Wide-ranging and meticulously detailed, this captures the wonder, beauty, and intrigue of its subject. Czerski is a wonderful writer. Most scientists could give you a handful of fascinating facts about their subject, no doubt, but few can string them together into such a compelling and elegantly written story, or convey complex ideas and novel perspectives with a few vivid phrases. Blue Machine really does change the way you see the world.' Christopher Hart, Daily Mail A beautifully written guide to the seas reveals the hidden complexity of their role in moving energy around the Earth.... A brisk tour of the oceans, like a sleek catamaran skipping over the waves. Deftly harnessing the trade winds of history and geography, guiding us through eddies and currents of anecdote, [Czerski] leaves us with an understanding of the complexity of the oceans. 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

All of Earth's ocean, from the equator to the poles, is a single engine powered by sunlight - a blue machine. Some of the writing is beautifully descriptive and gave me an appreciation of the writers experiences and my own experiences with the sea. However, many sections of the book were very science heavy and I felt more like I was reading an academic paper or thesis and I didn't enjoy these sections as much.The oceans are full of water, and water is just water, so there’s not much to know, right? Wrong. Far from being homogenous, the water in our oceans varies in temperature, salinity and depth, among other things. It’s affected by the weather and affects the weather. Some parts are well mixed and others remain stratified. I recommend Blue Machine if you want to find out more about how whales are affected by war and where there’s a secret sound tunnel. She says for that that want change, readers should write to their elected officials. What I am interested in hearing, after reading her book, is what does she recommend they write? If we were to ask our politicians to support an initiative/write a bill/fund a program, what does she believe is worth it? 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. Horatio Clare, Telegraph Czerski is a wonderful writer ... Blue Machine really does change the way you see the world.' Daily Mail Czerski is a wonderful writer ... Blue Machine really does change the way you see the world.' Daily Mail 'In Helen Czerski's hands, the mechanical becomes magical. An instant classic.'

All of the Earth's ocean, from the equator to the poles, is a single-engine powered by sunlight – a blue machine. In a break from many other books about the deep sea that talk about animals, Blue Machine focuses on the ocean itself, revealing a fascinating planetary engine. Equal parts physical oceanography, marine biology, and science history, topped off with human-interest stories, Czerski has written a captivating book that oozes lyricism in places. Timely, elegant and passionately argued, The Blue Machine is one of the biggest stories ever told. The understanding it offers is crucial to our future. Drawing on years of experience at the forefront of marine science, Helen Czerski captures the magnitude and subtlety of this complex force, showing us the thrilling extent to which we are at the mercy of this great engine. In Helen Czerski's hands, the mechanical becomes magical. An instant classic. Tristan Gooley, author of How to Read Water 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. Andrew Robinson, Nature

The Earth’s oceans are vast, and yet they often seem invisible. We had to go into space to really appreciate that the defining feature of our planet is not land but water. The Apollo programme sent men to the moon, but I think that its most significant achievement was to let all of us see the Earth. We humans eat the ocean every day. The sodium bustling about in your synapses right now, sending signals around your body . . . it came from the sea. The chloride that helps your body regulate blood pressure and control the gateway between the inside and outside of your cells . . . that came from the sea too. When a drop of sweat falls on to your tongue and you taste the salt, you’re tasting the ocean. But these ions are rare escapees. The salts in seawater do cycle very slowly between land and ocean, over millions of years. THE TIMES SCIENCE BOOK OF THE YEAR: 'This beautifully written, sweeping guide shows how the deep movement of the seas have ruled our lives in unexpected ways over millennia.' THE TIMES 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.' A fascinating dive into the essential engine that drives our world. Czerski brings the oceans alive with compelling stories that masterfully navigate this most complex system. Gaia Vince

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All of our fresh water is borrowed from the ocean – every cup of tea, every waterfall, 60 per cent of you and me, the most expensive champagne, your dog’s territorial liquid markers, and the snow covering the top of Everest.” In a book that will recalibrate 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 such as the Greenland shark that can live for hundreds of years, she explains the vast currents, invisible ocean walls and underwater waterfalls that all have their place in the ocean's complex, interlinked system. This is a book about the blue machine that drives our planet. We are taken on an intimate tour of the sea, it's layers, it's inhabitants from the smallest to the biggest, and how it effects our lives. I learned that salt - no matter how exotic it appears or where it comes from - is in fact all the same. Czerski is a physical oceanographer, and frames the ocean as a heat engine, the blue machine, driven by the difference in solar heating between the equator and North and South poles, with complications from tidal forces, wind, differences in salinity – which, like temperature, affects density – and shape of continental land masses and undersea crust. They generate complex effects, some fast and some unfolding very slowly, in a great, layered mass of water that is in constant motion.