Reviews: A new history of the deep ocean, seeking truth through math, a space opera about self-identity, and more new science books.
Nonfiction Exploring, and Exploiting, the Ocean’s Depths A new history of the deep sea—and the forces that threaten itThe first bathysphere made its initial descent off an island in Bermuda on June 6, 1930, lowered into the Atlantic Ocean by a shipboard winch. The vessel was a crude metal sphere pocked with tiny quartz windows, akin to finger holes in a bowling ball. The plunge was terrifying: leaks could spring, air could dwindle, portholes could collapse.
Happily, not everyone harbors such antibenthic prejudice. This is Casey's fourth marine-themed book. In The Wave , she chases gargantuan swells that swallow ships and enrapture surfers; other books sent her in pursuit of dolphins and great white sharks. Those works, however, were set entirely in the ocean's upper strata; meanwhile the deep sea—everything below 650 feet—constitutes 95 percent of Earth's habitable space.
In contrast to those writers, who regard the deep with unadulterated awe, Casey spikes her reverence with levity: one citadel of hydrothermal chimneys reminds her of “Gaudí on an acid trip.” Although there is no shortage of biological wonders in The Underworld, its author seems most fascinated by how humans have explored a place so hostile to them.
The vainglorious financiers will soon have company—namely, deep-sea mining companies seeking to capitalize on society's surging demand for electric vehicles and other ostensibly “green” technologies. The abyssal plains are strewn with mineral nodules that coalesce around biotic seeds such as sharks' teeth, accumulating cobalt and other metals integral to lithium-ion batteries.
Ben Goldfarb is author of Eager: The Surprising, Secret Life of Beavers and Why They Matter and Crossings: How Road Ecology Is Shaping the Future of Our Planet .Is Math Real? How Simple Questions Lead Us to Mathematics' Deepest TruthsYou're likely to identify as either “a math person” or “not a math person,” a decisive label you probably received as a child based on your experiences in school.
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