Wayward: Blue Machine with Helen Czerski

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. 

Helen Czerski’s infectious enthusiasm brings an already fascinating topic into brighter detail and will transform the way you see the world. Join us in conversation with Helen as she discusses the spectacular story of Earth's dynamic ocean and our human relationship with it – from battles fought and won, to extraordinary creatures, remarkable experiments, and astonishing discoveries.

Helen Czerski is an Associate Professor in the Department of Mechanical Engineering at University College London. As a physicist, she studies the bubbles generated by breaking waves in the ocean to understand their influence on weather and climate. She is the author of the bestselling Storm in a Teacup: The Physics of Everyday Life, Bubbles: A Ladybird Expert Book, and Blue Machine: How the Ocean Shapes Our World. You can find out more about Blue Machine & Wayward Book Festival here.

Blue Machine

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.

Tickets: Tickets £8 

All tickets have an additional £1 Poly Fund added at checkout.

Check times : Book now