An Ocean of Air : Why the Wind
Blows and Other Mysteries of the
Atmosphere
Gabrielle Walker
Reviewed by Jenny
Salyers
Have you ever
wondered
about
the air that surrounds us? What is it that makes it such an adaptable
substance? How does our atmosphere help life on Earth survive? Who were
the men
that gave us a better understanding of the air around us?
In An Ocean of Air,
author Gabrielle
Walker attempt to answer these questions and more. She reasons that the
Earth
is at the bottom of an ocean of air. She peels away the layers
composing our
atmosphere, and uses stories of the men who experimented on air to show
us how
it works. From Galileo’s experiments done during his confinement to his
villa
at Arcetri (in Florence), after his running afoul of the Inquisition,
through
to the modern day rush to discover space An Ocean of Air provides the
reader
with glimpses of science’s progression of discoveries to some of the
mysteries
posed by the air we breathe.
Gabrielle Walker has
written a
fantastic resource for anyone who is interested in science. Her
explorations of
the past experiments done on (in) our atmosphere are engaging,
informative, and
not at all dry. She brings her passion for the subject matter out in
the open
during the course of the book.
Some of the subject
matter in
the book, I was already familiar with. Galileo’s air experiments, while
not as
well known as his beliefs that the earth rotated around the sun –
heretical
ideas back during his lifetime, are still taught in physics classes. I
did find
some new to me scientists while reading An Ocean of Air. I particularly
found
Marconi’s “wireless” device and its impact on the shipping field, and
the
resulting discovery by Oliver Heaviside of the electrical layer in the
atmosphere (called the Heaviside layer) which made Marconi’s device
work
fascinating to read about. The book is presented in a well laid out
manner, its
facts are not too in depth nor or they simplistic making this a great
book for
anyone with an interest in the atmospheric sciences.