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BOOK REVIEW An Ocean of Air: Why the Wind Blows and Other Mysteries of the Atmosphere by Gabrielle Walker Harcourt - August 2007
Reviewed by Dr. Jonathan Dolhenty I will say this right at the outset: This is one of the best books about a scientific topic, written for a popular audience, that I have ever read (and, believe me, I've read a lot of them). If there is such a thing as a genuine "page-turner" in the field of popular science, An Ocean of Air certainly qualifies to be in such a category. I can understand why Gabrielle Walker is advertised as an award-winning science writer. If I offered an award for fine writing, especially about a subject as complex as the earth's atmosphere, she would top my list of potential recipients. In my considered opinion (and thankfully!), it just goes to prove that being an "academic" and possessing a Ph.D. (which she has) does not condemn one to write books forever as one writes a doctoral dissertation (which tend to be very stilted and hopelessly boring). Creative-writing instructors have always told me that the first sentence and paragraph of a book are most important. They are the "hook" that grabs the reader and propels him or her forward onto page two, then page three, then page four, and so on, until the reader reaches the last page, excited but exhausted, forced to exhale a lung's-worth of air, declaring "what a wild ride!" Walker's book provided that experience for me, and I am not exaggerating. The story opens twenty miles above New Mexico with Joe Kittinger "hanging in the sky." It is the 16th of August in 1960. (I had just graduated from college.) Then, "For eleven minutes he remained there, poised in an open gondola that twisted slowly beneath a vast helium balloon." But, "Far below, where Earth's surface curved away to the horizon, a glowing blue halo stood out against the blackness of space." Then, on the next page we are informed, Kittinger "took a single breath of pure oxygen from within his tightly sealed helmet . . . And then he jumped." Now, we're talking twenty miles up in the air here! The highest I've ever been is around eight miles up, courtesy of a small private jet taking me to Colorado in 2005 for a philosophy conference. I was nervous during that hours-long journey because I have a real problem with heights. So, I was immediately "hooked," as they say, by Walker's opening paragraphs. I could visualize exactly what was taking place and how Kittinger must have felt. Finally the author tells us: "Captain Joseph W. Kittinger Jr. of the U.S. Air Force is the man who fell to Earth and lived. Nobody has ever managed to emulate his feat." The author's point in telling this little anecdote is to illustrate for us something important about the "ocean" of air above us and around us. As Walker says: ". . .[T]he message from Kittinger's flight, and from every one of the pioneers who have sought to understand our atmosphere" is, "We don't just live in the air. We live because of it." This anecdote, by the way, is told in the Prologue to the book. The reader hasn't even begun Chapter One yet. But Walker has, indeed, provided the "hook" that will force any reader who loves adventure stories to continue on through the next seven chapters where, of course, we will encounter many other "pioneers" in this narrative about the ocean of air and its mysteries. Many of these characters will be familiar to most knowledgeable readers: Galileo Galilei, Robert Boyle, Joseph Priestley, Antoine Lavoisier, Christopher Columbus, James Van Allen, Blaise Pascal, and Guglielmo Marconi. Many will be unfamiliar to most readers, as a few were to me: Evangelista Torricelli, Joseph Black, Svante Arrhenius, William Ferrel, Oliver Heaviside, and Gilbert Plass. Even Wiley Post comes into the story, that daring and courageous pilot, an early aviation pioneer, who was killed (along with famous American humorist Will Rogers) in a 1935 airplane crash in Alaska. As the reader can see, the list of those involved in this fascinating chronicle about our ocean of air range from philosophers and scientists to mathematicians and world explorers, with an aviator or two thrown in for good measure. Walker's book, to be sure, is mainly about the ocean of air above us and around us which permits us to live and thrive; but it certainly is about more than just that. She discusses topics like climate change, the effects of chlorofluorocarbons on the atmosphere, carbon dioxide levels and their repercussions, and other subjects one would expect in a book such as this one. For me, however, the important information that the author provides is about "how" we have come to think about our ocean of air "through" the insights and experiments of the historical figures who were themselves enraptured with the phenomenon. In other words, I was mostly captured by the "history" of the intellectual thought behind our evolving understanding of the atmosphere wherein we reside. This book ends with an appropriate flourish in the Epilogue, an anecdote as compelling as the one in the Prologue. It is October 2003. This is when "a series of explosions rocked the outer surface of the sun. A massive flare flash fried Earth with x-rays equivalent to five thousands suns." However, none of us on this planet felt a thing. And now comes the place where the reader exhales and declares "What a ride!" Walker concludes this little anecdote and her book with these parting words: "The most massive solar flare since records began and one of the biggest radioactive maelstroms in history together met a far more formidable foe. They each arrived, and then, one by one they simply bounced off . . . thin air." Thin air? Ah, my! What a way to finish a most interesting adventure. An Ocean of Air is a superb piece of writing, an exciting and very readable exploration into something we ordinary people simply take for granted. The author also provides some suggestions for further reading, extensive endnotes, and a helpful index of topics. Believe me, this book is not to be missed and I give it my highest recommendation. 
Read an Excerpt from this Book Order at Amazon.com An Ocean of Air: Why the Wind Blows and Other Mysteries of the Atmosphere, by Gabrielle Walker Order at Powell's Books An Ocean of Air: Why the Wind Blows and Other Mysteries of the Atmosphere, by Gabrielle Walker |
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