Description

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More brittle than glass, at times stronger than steel, at other times flowing like molasses, ice covers 10 percent of the earth’s land and 7 percent of its oceans.

Mariana Gosnell here explores the history and uses of ice in all its complexity, grandeur, and significance. From the freezing of Pleasant Lake in New Hampshire to the breakup of a Vermont river at the onset of spring, from the frozen Antarctic landscape that emperor penguins inhabit to the cold, watery route bowhead whales take between Arctic ice floes, Gosnell examines icebergs, icicles, and frostbite; sea ice and permafrost; ice on Mars and in the rings of Saturn; and several new forms of ice developed in labs. Arecord of the scientific surprises, cultural magnitude, and everyday uses of frozen water, Ice is a sparkling illumination of a substance whose ebbs and flows over time have helped form the world we live in.

“Gosnell travels to the ends of the earth, into the clouds and under the frozen sea to conduct her investigations . . . By the time you finish this remarkable book, you’ll never think about freezing and melting in quite the same way.”—New York Times Book Review

“To read Ice is to discover just how astonishing it is and how necessary.”—San Francisco Chronicle

“A bright, curious, omnidirectional tour that will entrance nature readers.”—Booklist

“An encyclopedic work with surprises on every page . . . . Illustrated with images of ice castles, skaters, and bubble-filled frozen sculpture, Gosnell’s book breathes life into the crystals dubbed ‘glorious spangles’ by Henry David Thoreau.”—Discover

About the Author

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Mariana Gosnell is a former medicine reporter for Newsweek.  Her articles have appeared in many magazines, including Smithsonian and National Wildlife.  She is the author of Zero Three Bravo: Solo Across America in a Small Plane.

 

 

Praise For…

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“This astonishingly boring-sounding book turns out instead to be an astonishment. . . . Engaging, literate, mischievously written. . . . [Gosnell] grills and at times ribs grandiose scientists; marvels at, flatters and notes the historical idiocies of some polar explorers; and gets to the bottom of what would really happen if global warming melted the West Antarctic Ice Sheet.”
— Neal Karlen

"By the time you finish this remarkable book . . . you'll never think about freezing and melting in quite the same way. . . . Frozen frogs can be thawed overnight in a refrigerator, but it will be 24 hours before you can expect them to jump. Cool."
— Elizabeth Royte

"Gosnell is an engaging writer, as adept at spinning a simile . . . as at elucidating exactly how ice crystals bond. . . . There's a lot of good, hard science here . . . and a lot of gripping human-interest stuff about ice fishermen cracking through Minnesota lakes and explorers' ships crushed in polar sea ice."
— David Laskin

"To read Ice is to discover just how astonishing it is and how necessary."
— San Francisco Chronicle

Finalist
— Los Angeles Times Book Prize in Science and Technology

"Enjoyable reading by specialists and nonspecialists alike."
— Greg Dash

"Those who think they know all there is worth knowing about ice are in for a pleasant surprise. Whether your familiarity with ice is casual and seasonal or as a trained glaciologist, there is much to learn from Gosnell's treasure trove of ice information. After reading this book, you can be assured that you will never look at ice the same way and will be well-stocked with a mountain of fascinating facts."
— Robert Bindschadler

"Former Newsweek reporter Gosnell is an attentive and patient observer who traveled around the globe for this compendium of the human and natural history of ice. She opens with a description of the sound and sight of a small lake freezing, expanding from there to discuss the seasonal advance and retreat of ice, as on the Great Lakes or Lake Baikal. Taking the next natural step, the persistence of ice through the summer, brings Gosnell to the 1800s origin of glaciology in Louis Agassiz's study of Mont Blanc's Mer de Glace, and subsequently into the contemporary specialty of ice cores in ice-age research. En route through the science, which Gosnell condenses from the technical literature, the author imparts eclectic information through excerpts from poems, adventure and disaster stories, and discussions of ice sports and diversions. Gosnell conducts a bright, curious, and omnidirectional tour that will entrance nature readers."
— Booklist

“An enchanting account of the solid phase of that most vital of all earthy compounds: water. Ice took me to novel, frigid terrains. . . . A roving intellectual journey by an insatiably curious mind, [it] is as orderly as a crystal lattice.”
— David G. Campbell, author of "The Crystal Desert: Summers in Antarctica"