Gabrielle Walker

An Ocean of Air

The air around us is something we tend to take for granted, but in An Ocean of Air: A natural history of the Atmosphere Gabrielle Walker shows that it provides us with more benefits than we may realise. Not that the study of the atmosphere has always been plain sailing. The book starts with a look at the discovery that air had weight and the acceptance that a vacuum could really exist. Walker moves on to the identification of the constituents of air, and in particular Oxygen. This is followed by a chapter on carbon dioxide - its vital role in providing the food we eat, but how too much of it is leading to global warming.

Walker then takes a look at weather systems, telling us that what is called the Coriolis effect should really be named after William Ferrel. The story then goes upwards, looking at the jet streams, the ozone layer and the discovery of a hole in it, the ionosphere and its use in radio transmission, and the vital role of the Van Allen belts in protecting us from the solar wind.

I'd recommend this book to all readers: if you want to find out about the atmosphere then you'll find plenty of interest here, and in any case it provides a highly enjoyable read.

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Paperback 288 pages
ISBN: 015603414X
Salesrank: 375239
Weight:0.55 lbs

Published: 2008 Harvest Books

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Hardcover 336 pages
ISBN: 0747581908
Salesrank: 229595
Weight:1.15 lbs

Published: 2007 Bloomsbury Publishing PLC

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Paperback 288 pages
ISBN: 015603414X
Salesrank: 1359235
Weight:0.55 lbs

Published: 2008 Harcourt

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Product Description
We don’t just live in the air; we live because of it. It’s the most miraculous substance on earth, responsible for our food, our weather, our water, and our ability to hear. In this exuberant book, gifted science writer Gabrielle Walker peels back the layers of our atmosphere with the stories of the people who uncovered its secrets: • A flamboyant Renaissance Italian discovers how heavy our air really is: The air filling Carnegie Hall, for example, weighs seventy thousand pounds. • A one-eyed barnstorming pilot finds a set of winds that constantly blow five miles above our heads. • An impoverished American farmer figures out why hurricanes move in a circle by carving equations with his pitchfork on a barn door. • A well-meaning inventor nearly destroys the ozone layer. • A reclusive mathematical genius predicts, thirty years before he’s proved right, that the sky contains a layer of floating metal fed by the glowing tails of shooting stars.

Product Description

We don’t just live in the air; we live because of it. It’s the most miraculous substance on earth, responsible for our food, our weather, our water, and our ability to hear. In this exuberant book, gifted science writer Gabrielle Walker peels back the layers of our atmosphere with the stories of the people who uncovered its secrets:

• A flamboyant Renaissance Italian discovers how heavy our air really is: The air filling Carnegie Hall, for example, weighs seventy thousand pounds.

• A one-eyed barnstorming pilot finds a set of winds that constantly blow five miles above our heads.

• An impoverished American farmer figures out why hurricanes move in a circle by carving equations with his pitchfork on a barn door.

• A well-meaning inventor nearly destroys the ozone layer.

• A reclusive mathematical genius predicts, thirty years before he’s proved right, that the sky contains a layer of floating metal fed by the glowing tails of shooting stars.

Should be Entitled: "How We Discovered Why the Wind Blows and Other Mysteries of the Atmosphere" ***
Gabrielle Walker's "An Ocean of Air: Why the Wind Blows and Other Mysteries of the Atmosphere" is really more about the scientists who studied the atmosphere than it is about the atmosphere. Walker traces mankind's scientific discoveries about the atmosphere from the seventeenth century discovery that air had weight, through the discovery he air or our atmospherof the various gases that comprise the atmosphere, through Marconi's wireless telegraphy (with no mention of Nikolai Tesla), culminating in Van Allen's discovery of the magnetic belts that surround the earth and protect us from the sun's deadly radiation. The meat of the book, though, focuses on the scientist's who made these discoveries and how they made them. Walker wrote a short biographical sketch on every featured scientist, and then explained their experiments as they deduced or stumbled into new discoveries about the atmosphere that surrounds us. Unfortunately, this book focuses much more on the scientists than the science itself, and the science of the atmosphere almost gets lost as Walker sees to be more in love with some of the eccentric personalities more than the science of the atmosphere. For example, despite the title, there is only one chapter on the wind and weather -- an explanation of the prevalent winds (trade winds, westerlies, and polar easterlies). She even takes us down an odd detour discussing the sinking of the Titanic and the wireless operators on board her, although this had little if anything to do with the rest of the story. In addition to more actual science, this book also would have benefited from many more diagrams than the couple included in the book. Despite this, this is an entertaining and well-written book, with understandable explanations of the science of the atmosphere when she finally gets around to explaining the hard science. Her underlying story is that our atmosphere is fragile and vital to our existence in more ways than we realize. Although I did enjoy reading this book, at the end I felt that I had learned a lot more about the history of science than I had about "why the wind blows and other mysteries of our atmosphere."

Should be Entitled: "How We Discovered Why the Wind Blows and Other Mysteries of the Atmosphere" ***

Gabrielle Walker's "An Ocean of Air: Why the Wind Blows and Other Mysteries of the Atmosphere" is really more about the scientists who studied the atmosphere than it is about the atmosphere. Walker traces mankind's scientific discoveries about the atmosphere from the seventeenth century discovery that air had weight, through the discovery he air or our atmospherof the various gases that comprise the atmosphere, through Marconi's wireless telegraphy (with no mention of Nikolai Tesla), culminating in Van Allen's discovery of the magnetic belts that surround the earth and protect us from the sun's deadly radiation.

The meat of the book, though, focuses on the scientist's who made these discoveries and how they made them. Walker wrote a short biographical sketch on every featured scientist, and then explained their experiments as they deduced or stumbled into new discoveries about the atmosphere that surrounds us. Unfortunately, this book focuses much more on the scientists than the science itself, and the science of the atmosphere almost gets lost as Walker sees to be more in love with some of the eccentric personalities more than the science of the atmosphere. For example, despite the title, there is only one chapter on the wind and weather -- an explanation of the prevalent winds (trade winds, westerlies, and polar easterlies). She even takes us down an odd detour discussing the sinking of the Titanic and the wireless operators on board her, although this had little if anything to do with the rest of the story. In addition to more actual science, this book also would have benefited from many more diagrams than the couple included in the book.

Despite this, this is an entertaining and well-written book, with understandable explanations of the science of the atmosphere when she finally gets around to explaining the hard science. Her underlying story is that our atmosphere is fragile and vital to our existence in more ways than we realize. Although I did enjoy reading this book, at the end I felt that I had learned a lot more about the history of science than I had about "why the wind blows and other mysteries of our atmosphere."

Easy, anecdotal approach to some intriguing basics of atmospheric science ***
'Nice that someone with a Cambridge doctorate can relate the history of atmospheric science anecdotally, as a sequence of more or less exciting stories, in a style that can connect with anyone at high-school age who's curious about how it works. Walker discusses early conjectures about the weight of our air, the first inkling that it's made up of different gases, the wind patterns that blew Columbus across the ocean and the jets above a certain level that propel planes, what the Northern lights are, how telegraph and radio waves travel, the effects of CFCs on the ozone layer, etc. Much complication and controversy about our gradually enlarging grasp of the layers that make for life is absent, but that's only as it should be for curious beginners. This book may well entice many to reach beyond. Walker also tells of some early missteps by James Lovelock - of special interest to one who arrived late at his Gaia account, long after learning of it via the osmosis of our current, near-universal environmental awareness. And it's as unsurprising to see with what ease he retracted these early gaffes in view of the facts that came to bite him with refutation. My only misgiving about this book, and it's major, is about the lack of illustrations. I counted three, where another two dozen would have enriched the learning -- especially since this book's pitched at the introductory crowd. `Popular Mechanics' magazine and Leonardo DaVinci before that showed how science gains through illustrations; conversely, that explanations about physics are hobbled in their absence. Take this: "The magnetic field that surrounds our planet looks like an apple cut in half: Its lines of force emerge from the South Pole, bend over the equator, and disappear back into the North Pole ...form[ing] an almost impenetrable magnetic barrier... However, the lines emerging most steeply from the South Pole do not connect with their counterparts in the North. Instead, both poles have a smattering of field lines that point directly up into space." (p 215) It takes some doing to visualize all of this, whereas a single picture would do it quickly and unmistakably. Pictures get around verbal gymnastics and enliven science's nuts and bolts with direct representations of forces, complex machinery, experimental equipment, etc. (Walker's editors also failed her on this in Snowball Earth: The Story of a Maverick Scientist and His Theory of the Global Catastrophe That Spawned Life As We Know It, which doesn't have a single image.) Her next books would be greatly enriched, and she'd enlarge her readership considerably, once her publishers get her together with a good illustrator.) Our thin atmosphere is vital, literally, and it's encouraging to see Walker suggest that it's silly to think of "escaping" our planet: earth is home, just as we belong in time. That dream is really a nightmare except in the most distant and desperate future. What remains for us is to tend to it - and what better first step than to grasp some of its complexity? ***½

Easy, anecdotal approach to some intriguing basics of atmospheric science ***

'Nice that someone with a Cambridge doctorate can relate the history of atmospheric science anecdotally, as a sequence of more or less exciting stories, in a style that can connect with anyone at high-school age who's curious about how it works.

Walker discusses early conjectures about the weight of our air, the first inkling that it's made up of different gases, the wind patterns that blew Columbus across the ocean and the jets above a certain level that propel planes, what the Northern lights are, how telegraph and radio waves travel, the effects of CFCs on the ozone layer, etc. Much complication and controversy about our gradually enlarging grasp of the layers that make for life is absent, but that's only as it should be for curious beginners. This book may well entice many to reach beyond.

Walker also tells of some early missteps by James Lovelock - of special interest to one who arrived late at his Gaia account, long after learning of it via the osmosis of our current, near-universal environmental awareness. And it's as unsurprising to see with what ease he retracted these early gaffes in view of the facts that came to bite him with refutation.

My only misgiving about this book, and it's major, is about the lack of illustrations. I counted three, where another two dozen would have enriched the learning -- especially since this book's pitched at the introductory crowd. `Popular Mechanics' magazine and Leonardo DaVinci before that showed how science gains through illustrations; conversely, that explanations about physics are hobbled in their absence. Take this: "The magnetic field that surrounds our planet looks like an apple cut in half: Its lines of force emerge from the South Pole, bend over the equator, and disappear back into the North Pole ...form[ing] an almost impenetrable magnetic barrier... However, the lines emerging most steeply from the South Pole do not connect with their counterparts in the North. Instead, both poles have a smattering of field lines that point directly up into space." (p 215) It takes some doing to visualize all of this, whereas a single picture would do it quickly and unmistakably. Pictures get around verbal gymnastics and enliven science's nuts and bolts with direct representations of forces, complex machinery, experimental equipment, etc. (Walker's editors also failed her on this in Snowball Earth: The Story of a Maverick Scientist and His Theory of the Global Catastrophe That Spawned Life As We Know It, which doesn't have a single image.) Her next books would be greatly enriched, and she'd enlarge her readership considerably, once her publishers get her together with a good illustrator.)

Our thin atmosphere is vital, literally, and it's encouraging to see Walker suggest that it's silly to think of "escaping" our planet: earth is home, just as we belong in time. That dream is really a nightmare except in the most distant and desperate future. What remains for us is to tend to it - and what better first step than to grasp some of its complexity?
***½

Excellent, interesting read!! *****
I bought this book after hearing the author interviewed on NPR. Not being one who has a particularly scientific bent, I found what she was saying fascinating. The author takes something that we so often take for granted and puts a different, breathtaking view on it. I definitely recommend this book!

Excellent, interesting read!! *****

I bought this book after hearing the author interviewed on NPR. Not being one who has a particularly scientific bent, I found what she was saying fascinating. The author takes something that we so often take for granted and puts a different, breathtaking view on it. I definitely recommend this book!

A scientist tells an important story *****
The prologue in An Ocean of Air recounts Captain Kittinger's extraordinary parachute jump from the edge of space to the desert in New Mexico. The epilogue describes the ascent of a weather balloon in Greenland. Sandwiched between these two accounts, the reader meets the scientists who devoted their time to discovering complexities of the air surrounding us. The spectrum spans from Galileo (who tried to measure the weight of air when he was in his seventies) to Van Allen, after whom the radiation belts are named. In between, the reader meets several other personalities that come from all walks of life. The common bond tying them all together is that they all worked to understand the atmosphere, had to challenge notions of their day, and ultimately refined our knowledge of the atmosphere. What is intriguing is that the reader is introduced to the prevailing notion of air, the questions that these scientists posed, the empirical methods they used to satiate their curiosity, and the knowledge they bequeathed to humanity. There are no equations, just details of these scientists' lives that make their quest personal and high-level overview of the prevailing wisdom. Thus readers are invited to shares in the trials, tribulations, and eventual successes that these men experienced. Air is often thought as "nothing" (an "empty" glass for example). Galileo sought to "weigh" nothingness. In turn he could pose the question that if air has weight, could it really be nothing? Thus the question's underlying assumption challenged the prevailing notion that air is nothing. From the time of the Ancient Greeks, air was thought to be an element (and hence indivisible). Priestley's work (which separate the gases in air) challenged this notion and the theory of "different airs" developed. Walker presents these and many other notions that eventually bring the reader to contemporary theories. No doubt as scientific work progresses, our notion of the atmosphere will evolve. While Walker is a scientist, her writing style is akin to that of a novelist. The descriptions are vivid, the prose is fluid, the text unassuming - making the book a page-turner (if there ever could be a page-turner science book)! Armchair Interviews says: Some interesting information.

A scientist tells an important story *****

The prologue in An Ocean of Air recounts Captain Kittinger's extraordinary parachute jump from the edge of space to the desert in New Mexico. The epilogue describes the ascent of a weather balloon in Greenland. Sandwiched between these two accounts, the reader meets the scientists who devoted their time to discovering complexities of the air surrounding us.

The spectrum spans from Galileo (who tried to measure the weight of air when he was in his seventies) to Van Allen, after whom the radiation belts are named. In between, the reader meets several other personalities that come from all walks of life. The common bond tying them all together is that they all worked to understand the atmosphere, had to challenge notions of their day, and ultimately refined our knowledge of the atmosphere.

What is intriguing is that the reader is introduced to the prevailing notion of air, the questions that these scientists posed, the empirical methods they used to satiate their curiosity, and the knowledge they bequeathed to humanity. There are no equations, just details of these scientists' lives that make their quest personal and high-level overview of the prevailing wisdom. Thus readers are invited to shares in the trials, tribulations, and eventual successes that these men experienced.

Air is often thought as "nothing" (an "empty" glass for example). Galileo sought to "weigh" nothingness. In turn he could pose the question that if air has weight, could it really be nothing? Thus the question's underlying assumption challenged the prevailing notion that air is nothing. From the time of the Ancient Greeks, air was thought to be an element (and hence indivisible). Priestley's work (which separate the gases in air) challenged this notion and the theory of "different airs" developed. Walker presents these and many other notions that eventually bring the reader to contemporary theories. No doubt as scientific work progresses, our notion of the atmosphere will evolve.

While Walker is a scientist, her writing style is akin to that of a novelist. The descriptions are vivid, the prose is fluid, the text unassuming - making the book a page-turner (if there ever could be a page-turner science book)!

Armchair Interviews says: Some interesting information.

Perfect for the non-college amateur science reader. *****
Gabrielle Walker has a doctorate degree in chemistry, so AN OCEAN OF AIR: WHY THE WIND BLOWS AND OTHER MYSTERIES OF THE ATMOSPHERE comes from an expert who tailors her knowledge to the general public. This makes for a special recommendation for general-interest libraries catering to an audience which likes science presented in a lively, intriguing fashion. Chapters blend history and intriguing facts about the people who uncovered the secrets of weather and the atmosphere with hard science, making for a most accessible, even fun survey perfect for the non-college amateur science reader. Diane C. Donovan California Bookwatch

Perfect for the non-college amateur science reader. *****

Gabrielle Walker has a doctorate degree in chemistry, so AN OCEAN OF AIR: WHY THE WIND BLOWS AND OTHER MYSTERIES OF THE ATMOSPHERE comes from an expert who tailors her knowledge to the general public. This makes for a special recommendation for general-interest libraries catering to an audience which likes science presented in a lively, intriguing fashion. Chapters blend history and intriguing facts about the people who uncovered the secrets of weather and the atmosphere with hard science, making for a most accessible, even fun survey perfect for the non-college amateur science reader.

Diane C. Donovan
California Bookwatch

A weight on your shoulders ****
Apart from the unoriginal title and misleading subtitle [any fourth-grader knows why the wind blows], this introduction to the history of atmosphere has much to recommend it. Walker is able to take us through the search for what comprises the air we breathe. She resurrects some important figures in this quest, showing why we should know of them. There are also familiar characters, not the least of which is Galileo, whose study of the air took his remaining years during house arrest by The Church. Although the challenge to cover so many characters and their efforts to put substance to something we consider almost ephemeral is daunting, the author covers the ground with spritely prose. The book is a good starting point for those unfamiliar with the air that sustains us. It was a revelation of great magnitude to discover air can be weighed. Passing your hand through it doesn't seem to meet much resistance. Balloons and birds pass through it effortlessly, it seems. But the realisation that air was "there" was the first step in a long journey in understand what exactly was "there" to understand. Walker, although opening the account with Galileo's trial and confinement, reminds us that "air" was considered by some ancients, especially Aristotle, to be one of the four "Elements", along with earth, fire and water. Air, because it exhibits pressure, must have measureable "weight". Another Renaissance Italian, Alessandro Torecelli, resolving a dispute about that suggestion, invented the quicksilver [mercury] barometer still in use today - coining the phrase "ocean of air" as a result. In dealing with the pressure derived from its mass, Walker panders to her US readers by noting that Carnegie Hall in New York City holds over 32 thousand kilogrammes of air. What naturally follows leads Walker to such scientific heavyweights as Joseph Priestly, Antoine Lavoisier, Joseph Black and even Gugliemo Marconi. Marconi? Why is the man credited with the invention of the wireless mixed in with gas investigators? Although Marconi wasn't certain how his signals could cover such vast distances, it was later learned that signals bounced from high altitudes. Whatever views we may have of weather events, Walker demonstrates, the upper atmosphere is in constant turmoil, with electrical and chemical changes occurring at intense rates. At each step in narrating the discoveries, she provides a descriptive segment on the life and thinking of the researchers. Her description of Oliver Heaviside will repel a few, but at this distance others will find him of interest. Her focus is mostly on the science concerned with what comprises the atmosphere and its activities. Even so, it's disappointing that no mention is made of the earliest forecasters such as Robert Fitzroy, Darwin's captain on the HMS Beagle. Offsetting this lack, Walker brings to light a figure unaccountably forgotten. Early in the 19th Century, Virginian William Ferrel, who should have been doing his farm chores, instead studied mathematics and meteorology to decipher how the winds work. His calculations led to a new assessment of how air masses move due to the Earth's rotation. Today, the region of the atmosphere producing the winds and weather we experience daily is deemed the "Ferrel Cell". Unlike some science writers, indeed, unlike some of her earlier books, Walker keeps herself out of this account - at least until the "Epilogue". The writing is vibrant and captures your attention. Occasionally, close scrutiny reveals some errors - "tropical" air cells do not originate at the Pole, nor was Columbus the "first European to step into a new world" - but these are minor glitches. The science story is well told and enthusiastically. Walker has done a great deal of digging into background material and guides us through the results almost effortlessly. This book would make an excellent gift to a young person looking for a career pursuit. But shop carefully as there are more thorough accounts than this one, no less well written. Much about "the ocean of air" has been explained, but even more remains. [stephen a. haines - Ottawa, Ontario]

A weight on your shoulders ****

Apart from the unoriginal title and misleading subtitle [any fourth-grader knows why the wind blows], this introduction to the history of atmosphere has much to recommend it. Walker is able to take us through the search for what comprises the air we breathe. She resurrects some important figures in this quest, showing why we should know of them. There are also familiar characters, not the least of which is Galileo, whose study of the air took his remaining years during house arrest by The Church. Although the challenge to cover so many characters and their efforts to put substance to something we consider almost ephemeral is daunting, the author covers the ground with spritely prose. The book is a good starting point for those unfamiliar with the air that sustains us.

It was a revelation of great magnitude to discover air can be weighed. Passing your hand through it doesn't seem to meet much resistance. Balloons and birds pass through it effortlessly, it seems. But the realisation that air was "there" was the first step in a long journey in understand what exactly was "there" to understand. Walker, although opening the account with Galileo's trial and confinement, reminds us that "air" was considered by some ancients, especially Aristotle, to be one of the four "Elements", along with earth, fire and water. Air, because it exhibits pressure, must have measureable "weight". Another Renaissance Italian, Alessandro Torecelli, resolving a dispute about that suggestion, invented the quicksilver [mercury] barometer still in use today - coining the phrase "ocean of air" as a result. In dealing with the pressure derived from its mass, Walker panders to her US readers by noting that Carnegie Hall in New York City holds over 32 thousand kilogrammes of air.

What naturally follows leads Walker to such scientific heavyweights as Joseph Priestly, Antoine Lavoisier, Joseph Black and even Gugliemo Marconi. Marconi? Why is the man credited with the invention of the wireless mixed in with gas investigators? Although Marconi wasn't certain how his signals could cover such vast distances, it was later learned that signals bounced from high altitudes. Whatever views we may have of weather events, Walker demonstrates, the upper atmosphere is in constant turmoil, with electrical and chemical changes occurring at intense rates. At each step in narrating the discoveries, she provides a descriptive segment on the life and thinking of the researchers. Her description of Oliver Heaviside will repel a few, but at this distance others will find him of interest.

Her focus is mostly on the science concerned with what comprises the atmosphere and its activities. Even so, it's disappointing that no mention is made of the earliest forecasters such as Robert Fitzroy, Darwin's captain on the HMS Beagle. Offsetting this lack, Walker brings to light a figure unaccountably forgotten. Early in the 19th Century, Virginian William Ferrel, who should have been doing his farm chores, instead studied mathematics and meteorology to decipher how the winds work. His calculations led to a new assessment of how air masses move due to the Earth's rotation. Today, the region of the atmosphere producing the winds and weather we experience daily is deemed the "Ferrel Cell".

Unlike some science writers, indeed, unlike some of her earlier books, Walker keeps herself out of this account - at least until the "Epilogue". The writing is vibrant and captures your attention. Occasionally, close scrutiny reveals some errors - "tropical" air cells do not originate at the Pole, nor was Columbus the "first European to step into a new world" - but these are minor glitches. The science story is well told and enthusiastically. Walker has done a great deal of digging into background material and guides us through the results almost effortlessly. This book would make an excellent gift to a young person looking for a career pursuit. But shop carefully as there are more thorough accounts than this one, no less well written. Much about "the ocean of air" has been explained, but even more remains. [stephen a. haines - Ottawa, Ontario]

An Ocean of Air *****
A copy of An Ocean of Air should be on every library bookshelf in the world. I found this text both immensely informative and extremely interesting. Quite a number of times, I jumped up, put the book down, and went to find someone to tell about an remarkable fact or a story about a particular scientist that I thought was amusing. The book is set up in chronological order, exploring the various issues surrounding air. It starts off with the presumptions about air that our ancestors had about the substance. Then, it begins looking at the various individuals who were courageous, curious, and sometimes just plain mad enough to ask questions and seek answers. The stories progress throughout touching on a variety of associated topics from chemical composition of air and the ozone layer to carbonation and space flight. Apart from the historical and scientific usefulness of this book, I also want to note the humanizing aspect of the various scientists. Often when we picture scientists, we assume that they sit in their laboratory using their great intellect to uncover scientific discoveries. We don't often think about the sacrifices of these individuals or that often such discoveries have not always been popular. Moreover, often the most interesting successful experiences were those that went horribly wrong.

An Ocean of Air *****

A copy of An Ocean of Air should be on every library bookshelf in the world. I found this text both immensely informative and extremely interesting. Quite a number of times, I jumped up, put the book down, and went to find someone to tell about an remarkable fact or a story about a particular scientist that I thought was amusing.

The book is set up in chronological order, exploring the various issues surrounding air. It starts off with the presumptions about air that our ancestors had about the substance. Then, it begins looking at the various individuals who were courageous, curious, and sometimes just plain mad enough to ask questions and seek answers. The stories progress throughout touching on a variety of associated topics from chemical composition of air and the ozone layer to carbonation and space flight.

Apart from the historical and scientific usefulness of this book, I also want to note the humanizing aspect of the various scientists. Often when we picture scientists, we assume that they sit in their laboratory using their great intellect to uncover scientific discoveries. We don't often think about the sacrifices of these individuals or that often such discoveries have not always been popular. Moreover, often the most interesting successful experiences were those that went horribly wrong.