The Physics of Everyday Life

Storm in a Teacup

Physicist and rising BBC star, Dr Helen Czerski shows that science isn't something complicated for someone else somewhere else but all around us, happening right now in pigeons, teacups and cakes.

If you've ever felt like understanding how things work is just too big a mountain to climb then read this book. It'll carry you gently to the peak and show you how stunning and beautiful the view is. It is rare that someone can explain that which seems endlessly complex and makes you feel like in fact you'd understood it all along. Helen Czerski's book does just that. 
Fun, fascinating and brilliantly well written - 'Right there, in my teacup, I can see the storm.' Me too and I know what it is now.

This book is charming, accessible and enthusiastic. Helen invites you in to see the world through a her eyes and understand how a physicist thinks. It's a wonderful way to discover the hidden scientific connections behind the ordinary and everyday.

Helen Czerski's absorbing Storm in a Teacup stands head and shoulders above other popular science books. The little fascinations we left behind in childhood are but her jumping-off points for the really, really big picture ... Hers if the kind of self-assured, endearing nerdishness that doesn't wait to see if you're on board: she pulls you along, anticipating your head-scratching at every fluorescing scorpion and swirling drop of milk in your teacup.

In a friendly, chatty style that includes anecdotes from her personal and professional life, Czerski manages to make spilled coffee fascinating; tree growth astonishing; telecommunications intuitive.

[Helen Czerski] has a formidable knack for explaining mind-bending concepts in easy-to-understand language ... the book to read this week.

Helen Czerski has a remarkable knack for finding scientific wonders under every rock, alongside every raindrop, and inside every grain of sand.

Jordan Ellenberg, How Not to Be Wrong: The Hidden Maths of Everyday Life

The written equivalent of a spectrum beaming out from a prism. Thanks to Helen’s brilliantly engaging book you’ll never consider anything to be mundane or ordinary again.

A quite delightful book on the joys, and universality, of physics. Czerski’s enthusiasm is infectious because she brings our humdrum everyday world to life, showing us that it is just as fascinating as anything that can be seen by the Hubble Telescope or created at the Large Hadron Collider.

In this diverting kaleidoscope of reflections on the connections between the everyday and the big things in life, Czerski – a physicist and rising BBC star – reflects on the physics of all around us as she links what makes popcorn pop to Antarctic winds, coffee stains to blood tests, scorpions to cyclists and ketchup bottles to aliens in space. Never has stirring a mug of tea been so fascinating.

Storm in a Teacup is a course in physics, but it’s less like a classroom than a long walk with a patient, charming, and very, very learned friend. 
Helen Czerski has a remarkable knack for finding scientific wonders under every rock, alongside every raindrop, and inside every grain of sand.

Jordan Ellenberg, How Not to Be Wrong: The Power of Mathematical Thinking

The use of everyday topics to explain complex physics in an easily understandable way is only helped by the brilliant narrative style, which is a pleasure to read. You'll be fascinating your friends with everyday science facts for weeks afterwards! *****

There is real science in Czerski’s stories, and it’s described in a serious manner. But what I love about the book is that it is always clear that science is a human-centered activity performed by people. 
 
Storm in a Teacup will entertain and educate any person with a healthy curiosity about the natural world... Encourage her to write more; buy this book.

A  funny, readable book that makes you view your surroundings quite differently.

Helen Czerski was born in Manchester. She 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. 
 
Helen has been a regular presenter of BBC TV science documentaries since 2011. She also hosts the Ocean Matters podcast, is part of the Cosmic Shambles network, and is one of the presenters for the Fully Charged Show. She has been a science columnist for the Wall Street Journal since 2017 and 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.

'A quite delightful book on the joys, and universality, of physics. Czerski's enthusiasm is infectious because she brings our humdrum everyday world to life, showing us that it is just as fascinating as anything that can be seen by the Hubble Telescope or created at the Large Hadron Collider.' - Jim Al-Khalili 
 
Our world is full of patterns. If you pour milk into your tea and give it a stir, you'll see a swirl, a spiral of two fluids, before the two liquids mix completely. The same pattern is found elsewhere too. Look down on the Earth from space, and you'll find similar swirls in the clouds, made where warm air and cold air waltz. 
 
In Storm in a Teacup, Helen Czerski links the little things we see every day with the big world we live in. Each chapter begins with something small - popcorn, coffee stains and refrigerator magnets - and uses it to explain some of the most important science and technology of our time. 
 
This is physics as the toolbox of science - a toolbox we need in order to make sense of what is around us and arrive at decisions about the future, from medical advances to solving our future energy needs. It is also physics as the toy box of science: physics as fun, as never before.

Helen Czerski

[Czerski's]  profound, sparkling global ocean voyage mingles history and culture, natural history, geography, animals and people.

'Czerski aims to greatly expand and even revolutionise the reader's understanding of what is going on in seven tenths of the planet that is not covered in land

Lively and engrossing ... Alongside her vivid portrayal of waters sliding over one another, colliding, mixing andturning into ice or water vapour, she explains how the living beings within the sea alsoform part of the 'blue machine' ... [Cerzski's personal experience of both Polynesian canoes off Hawaii and ice floes near the North Pole is not icing on the cake but part of the argument of this excellent and important book.

Helen Czerski's fascinating new book casts the ocean as an extraordinary giant engine, and helps us grasp its complex physicsand its key role in climate change

The Blue Machine is a point of departure, a map for further exploration. Not since reading The Diversity of Life by E.O. Wilson have I read a book as timely, salient, and informative.

In this captivating and urgently-needed book, Czerski weaves a wonderful, watery spell, entwining spectacular science with poetic awe as she expertly guides readers through the workings of a vast, unfamiliar world. Moving and thrilling, The Blue Machine tells us about the seas but also makes us care: an epic love story that captures the ocean's beating heart.

Jo Marchant, author of Cure and The Human Cosmos

I love Helen Czerski's writing, and this is her richest work yet - as clear as springwater, yet as filled with fascinating things as the ocean itself.

Sarah Bakewell, author of How to Live and Humanly Possible

JUNE BOOK OF THE MONTH: 'Physicist Helen Czerski offers a very different perspective on the ocean in her revelatory book... Published ahead of World Ocean Day on 8th June, it unlocks a treasure chest of enthralling stories; from the navigators of ancient Polynesia, and the marvels of plankton, to John Steinbeck's Cannery Row and the copious tears cried by turtles.

Blue Machine is quite simply one of the best books I have ever read. 
Helen Czerski is a consummate storyteller ... in places you'll drift serenely among corals or dense kelp forests, in others you'll ride Atlantic breakers or fear for your life in a tropical storm ... When you resurface, you will be bursting with enthusiasm and wonder and you'll understand how the ocean works and more besides.

Dr George McGavin, zoologist, entomologist and broadcaster

Awash with fascinating facts. Helen Czerski writes with authority, passion and an easy conversational style . You will want to be out there on the ice and ocean with her. I loved it.

In Helen Czerski's hands, the mechanical becomes magical. An instant classic.

Tristan Gooley, author of How to Read Water

Blue Machine is one of the best and most entertaining science books I've read in a very long time. I have worked on the ocean for more than 30 years and I could tell within a few pages that Blue Machine would change the way I think about it forever. Helen is an experienced science communicator with a talent for explaining the complex physics of the ocean in an understandable and very entertaining way. I must say I would never have made the connection between the rich Humboldt Current in the pacific Ocean off Peru and farming turnips in Britain, just one of many anecdotes. The reader is left with the impression of a churning, dynamic ocean, powered by the sun, controlling our weather and changing human destinies. What a treat for ocean lovers, anyone interested in how the world works or for someone just looking for a captivating read.

Prof. Alex Rogers, Science Director REV Ocean and author of The Deep

Helen Czerski weaves together physics and biology, history and science, in a beautifully poetic way. Fascinating, funny and deeply moving. From vast currents and tides to the smallest creatures that inhabit our oceans she reveals the spellbinding wonder of the oceans. From the opening paragraph, I was entranced.

A fascinating dive into the essential engine that drives our world. Czerski brings the oceans alive with compelling stories that masterfully navigate this most complex system.

Helen Czerski's absorbing Storm in a Teacup stands head and shoulders above other popular science books.

Praise for Helen Czerski: Her enthusiasm is infectious

BOOK OF THE WEEK: This beautifully written, sweeping guide shows how the deep movement of the seas have ruled our lives in unexpected ways over millennia.

A dazzle of stories beautifully told...Czerski argues throughout that to truly see the miraculous oceans, to understand and to feel our connection to them, is vital and integral to our history and our future. Her outstanding book advances that understanding and honours that connection. Her readers will see the seas anew.

This brilliantly organised account of it will change the way you see the world, and its colossal oceanic expanses. There is indeed a great blue engine, regulating the circulatory systems of our home world. It is, as Czerski puts it, the beating heart of the planet.

'Czerski is a wonderful writer. Most scientists could give you a handful of fascinating facts about their subject, no doubt, but few can string them together into such a compelling and elegantly written story, or convey complex ideas and novel perspectives with a few vivid phrases. Blue Machine really does change the way you see the world.'

The world needs a 'David Attenborough for physics' and Helen Czerski is a prime contender - she's brilliant, clear, passionate, modern and inspiring.

Riveting.... The cultural history fascinates.... Wide-ranging and meticulously detailed, this captures the wonder, beauty, and intrigue of its subject.

Selected for 2023 Science Books of the Year: &lsquo;Helen Czerski&rsquo;s eminently readable book is a reminder of the importance of the seas from the battles of ancient Rome to the wars over ancient bird poo, and how once that light goes back into the lifelessness of space it does so with a blue tinge.&rsquo;

How the Ocean Shapes Our World

WINNER OF THE 2024 WAINWRIGHT PRIZE FOR CONSERVATION 
 
FINANCIAL TIMES 2023 HIGHLIGHT 
 
'Helen Czerski weaves together physics and biology, history and science, in a beautifully poetic way.' 
Professor Alice Roberts 
 
'In Helen Czerski's hands, the mechanical becomes magical. An instant classic.' 
Tristan Gooley, author of How to Read Water 
 
'Blue Machine is quite simply one of the best books I have ever read.' 
Dr George McGavin, zoologist, entomologist and broadcaster 
 
'A fascinating dive into the essential engine that drives our world. Czerski brings the oceans alive with compelling stories that masterfully navigate this most complex system.' 
Gaia Vince, science journalist, broadcaster and author of Nomad Century 
 
 
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.

Blue Machine

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Helen Czerski

Praise for Blue Machine

A spectacular read.

Splendid

[Czerski's] profound, sparkling global ocean voyage mingles history and culture, natural history, geography, animals and people.

A spectacular read.

Splendid

[Czerski's] profound, sparkling global ocean voyage mingles history and culture, natural history, geography, animals and people.

A spectacular read.

Splendid

[Czerski's] profound, sparkling global ocean voyage mingles history and culture, natural history, geography, animals and people.

Books by Helen Czerski

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