WINNER OF THE 2024 WAINWRIGHT PRIZE FOR CONSERVATION FINANCIAL TIMES 2023 HIGHLIGHT 'Helen
Czerski weaves together physics and biology history and science in a beautifully poetic way.'
Professor Alice Roberts 'In Helen Czerski's hands the mechanical becomes magical. An instant
classic .' Tristan Gooley author of How to Read Water 'Blue Machine is quite simply one
of the best books I have ever read.' Dr George McGavin zoologist entomologist and
broadcaster '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 science journalist broadcaster and author of Nomad Century All of the
Earth's ocean from the equator to the poles is a single engine powered by sunlight - a blue
machine. 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. 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. Timely elegant and passionately argued Blue Machine presents a
fresh perspective on what it means to be a citizen of an ocean planet. 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 Earth's defining feature showing
us the thrilling extent to which we are at the mercy of this great engine.
