Deep: Freediving, Renegade Science, And What The Ocean Tells Us About Ourselves (2014) - Plot & Excerpts
Wow. The author wrote an article about competitive freediving (diving to depths of up to 300 feet with no gear--just holding one's breath) for an outdoor magazine, then learned to freedive so that he could accompany researchers to swim with sharks and whales. He also went down to the ocean floor in a submarine built by some nutty guy as a hobby. The chapters jump from freediving to how whales communicate to how life may have begun in deep water vents. Strangely fascinating. My 8th grader is also enjoying it. Good follow up to Shadow Divers. People do some nutty things.... Fantastic! I hope it is one the year's best science books even though the scientists in this book are not institution-backed. This is like an adventure book you can't put down: free divers, tagging and studying sharks off Reunion island; a NJ native who takes tourists down 2500 feet in his homemade submarine in the Caribbean; Fabrice Schnoller, an amateur scientist who studies dolphin and whale language; the last remaining divers (ama) of Japan... Who knew that, like sharks, we also have magnetite deposits in our heads that help us naturally orient to the cardinal directions (though not as well as sharks do).
What do You think about Deep: Freediving, Renegade Science, And What The Ocean Tells Us About Ourselves (2014)?
Interesting. But really just a magazine article that has been padded.
—Pablo
Four stars for the inspiration. Really fascinating stuff!
—reeses1407
