I've passed exams in physics. That's why I identify still slightly more with being a physicist. It's actually quite common in oceanography to have come from something else. Plenty of us were trained in maths, chemistry, biology, physics, and engineering as well. You can't just study oceanography. You need to know the details of the chemistry or the details of biology. I'm very aware that there are people... you know, then labels become unhelpful. There are people called physical oceanographers who study the large-scale movements of the ocean - which is not what I do. What I happen to do is the physics of the surface ocean. Of course, in the
To understand the world you need to understand the ocean. That’s the argument of physicist Helen Czerski who has long studied the complex ecosystems and forces that drive the ‘blue machine’ which covers 71% of our planet. Czerski joins Intelligence Squared to discuss her new book Blue Machine: How the Ocean Shapes Our World, and what we should know about these vast bodies of water – the waves, currents, invisible ocean walls and underwater waterfalls that are part of an interlinked system that shapes the world around us. In conversation with science editor of The Times Tom Whipple, Czerski discusses how, since the beginning of human civilisation, the oceans have been central to the way human societies have evolved and how threats like climate change and overfishing could threaten our future.
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