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Mapping the Deep , The Extraordinary Story of Ocean Science by Robert Kunzig
Mapping the Deep , The Extraordinary Story of Ocean Science by Robert Kunzig
Books about ocean science seem to be fashionable at the moment, and by their nature there is a certain amount of overlap between them. What I liked about Mapping the Deep was Robert Kunzig's relaxed writing style and explanations.
I can't resist precising Kunzig's explanation of deep-sea specimen collecting. He likens it to a spaceship of aliens arriving in orbit. They can't survive the Earth's atmosphere or gravity, or even see that well. So they lower a net on a long cable to the surface.
The net touches down one evening, and bounces through a playground, scattering children without snaring one; collects a dog that is studying a bone on the street; and sweeps into a backyard, picking up an azalea, a clothesline bearing lacy underwear, and a patch of lettuce with associated rabbit. Finally it nearly comes to grief in a parking lot, where the weight of a 1979 Chevy and the teenagers in its back seat cause the cable to groan. The aliens reel in their catch: one carnivore; one herbivore with food; assorted mysterious shell fragments; and a large metal crusted animal whose source food remains obscure, but which seems to be serviced by remarkably sophisticated intestinal endosymbionts.
Mapping the Deep is entertaining to read, even when you already know what Kunzig is explaining. It's the sort of easily readable paperback I would pick up on impulse from the airport shop; inexpensive, portable, and suitable for reading on a long flight, or between dives on a liveaboard.
John Liddiard
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Mapping the Deep , The Extraordinary Story of Ocean Science by Robert Kunzig (Sort of Books, 0208 757 4400). Softback, 346pp, £8.99
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