The Blue Machine

How the Ocean Works

By: Helen Czerski

Narrated by: Helen Czerski

Length: 14 hrs and 51 mins

Publisher's summary

A Financial Times Best Science Book of 2023

A scientist’s exploration of the "ocean engine"—the physics behind the ocean’s systems—and why it matters.

All of Earth’s oceans, from the equator to the poles, are a single engine powered by sunlight, driving huge flows of energy, water, life, and raw materials. In The Blue Machine, physicist and oceanographer Helen Czerski illustrates the mechanisms behind this defining feature of our planet, voyaging from the depths of the ocean floor to tropical coral reefs, estuaries that feed into shallow coastal seas, and Arctic ice floes.

Through stories of history, culture, and animals, she explains how water temperature, salinity, gravity, and the movement of Earth’s tectonic plates all interact in a complex dance, supporting life at the smallest scale—plankton—and the largest—giant sea turtles, whales, humankind. 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 introduces the messengers, passengers, and voyagers that rely on interlinked systems of vast currents, invisible ocean walls, and underwater waterfalls.

Most important, 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. Timely, elegant, and passionately argued, The Blue Machine presents a fresh perspective on what it means to be a citizen of an ocean planet.

©2023 Helen Czerski (P)2023 Random House Audio

Critic reviews

Riveting.... The cultural history fascinates.... Wide-ranging and meticulously detailed, this captures the wonder, beauty, and intrigue of its subject.—Publishers Weekly, starred review

The Blue Machine is a point of departure, a map for further exploration. Not since reading The Diversity of Life by E.O. Wilson have I read a book as timely, salient, and informative.—Todd L. Capson, Science

[Czerski’s] profound, sparkling global ocean voyage mingles history and culture, natural history, geography, animals and people.—Andrew Robinson, Nature

Amazing how gripping and entertaining it is

I didn’t know what to expect from this book, but it blew me out of the water. The author kept it not just educational but entertaining with bringing in history and stories that one would not even think could have anything to do with this. It was never boring, always interesting and very educational. The author has a lovely voice and one can hear her passion about the subject while she’s reading it. I highly recommend this book.

Brilliant and needed

This book is brilliantly written and somehow quilted complex information into insightful digestable peaces. it's so good, that I have started to read it again!

Wonderful knowledge locked into much detail

I very much enjoyed the book. I think this was presented fairly. ALL people on the planet need to understand is information. We area here in this form because of the ocean. So we must learn more about its working or suffer the consequences.
I think more use of footnotes in this book could greatly improve the spreading of this knowledge; as the knowledge is locked too deeply in the details for the average person to persevere through.

Pay to be lectured at

The first half of this book is informative with lots of interesting facts about the ocean's systems and it's long relationship with life on this planet. The second half is nothing more than the author's passionate rant and moralistic lectures. Yet another portent of doom and gloom unless humanity changes their ways.