How does the ocean help shape our world? – with Helen Czerski

The ocean is a giant, complex machine that drives the world we live in - and we ignore it at our peril. Find out why with 2020 Christmas lecturer Helen Czerski.

Discover the rich diversity of life and movement in our oceans, from ancient navigators to permanent residents of the deep. Explore the vast currents, invisible ocean walls, and underwater waterfalls that shape our oceans' complex systems. Understanding the workings of the global ocean system is essential now that it is under significant threat, so we must put this knowledge to use in order to save our blue machine.

With her passion and expertise in marine science, Helen offers a thrilling and captivating account of our oceans' intricate workings and its significance to our future. Don't miss this opportunity to gain a deeper understanding of our oceans and their fundamental role in our world.

This talk was filmed at the Ri on 1 June 2023

Helen Czerski is a former Christmas Lecturer, physicist and oceanographer with a passion for investigating the interesting things in life. Helen graduated from the University of Cambridge in 2001 with a first in Natural Sciences (Physics), and in 2006 with a PhD in experimental explosives physics.

In 2010, Helen returned to the UK after four years spent working in the USA at the Scripps Institution of Oceanography and URI’s Graduate School of Oceanography. Her academic home now is the Department of Mechanical Engineering at University College London, where she studies the physics of breaking waves and bubbles at the ocean surface.

As a regular science presenter on the BBC for ten years, Helen has covered the physics of the natural world in BBC2 landmark documentaries, and of everyday life in a range of BBC4 documentaries. Helen is also a regular contributor to Horizon, and most recently she presented the BBC show ‘Ocean Autopsy’, examining the damage that humans have caused to the ocean and its habitants.

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[VideoWebb]

What a fantastic presentation! I was gripped from start to finish! Helen Czerski can definitely inspire people and I hope she goes on ever further to awaken us to the huge significance of our amazing oceans. I feel like the entire presentation needs to end with an 'Amen'. And I am not religious.

[CarolynFahm]

Helen Czerski is an absolutely brilliant lecturer.

[maedilein]

I thought I'd give this a listen for a few minutes and it was so fascinating that I stayed for the whole thing, wanting even more. Well done, Helen Czerski. Now I'll have to buy the book.

[mrcookies]

As a peruvian that only hears the economic side of the fishmeal trade, seeing this from a scientific pov is incredibly illuminating, thank you!

[allybally]

I loved listening to her! She’s a great speaker and kept me focused for the whole talk! Which is saying something! I wish that I had lectures like her when I was in uni.

[garydecad]

Wonderful and a most enthusiastic lecturer.

[angel]

Love how she brings in the context of discovery of the Hamboldt Current and clarifies it as the first observation in the western world .

[digiryde]

Oh, how I would love to be in these audiences!

[abcde_fz]

.
EXCELLENT INFORMATION PRESENTED VERY ENTHUSIASTICALLY
By someone very knowledgeable and passionate about
The World Ocean!!!

[imager]

The best video from this channel in a long time!

[mkb]

Brilliant presentation. What a great lecturer.

[henrikmartikainen]

Tämä luento on yksi parhaista katsomistani 💯👍❤️ Ei on yksi parhaista sisällön tuottajista❤

[cacofigueiredo]

Very good!! It's a new perspective, quite new for me!!

[alexsuited]

Great video, nice analogy 👍. Thank you prof Helen for the insight. It's controls our environment and if climate change is occurring, then that's where we should be looking and trying to correct it. We don't have a climate without the big blue. So don't throw garbage into it, please, or plastics. Let's help the ocean help us and all upon the marble. Peace ✌️ from Canada, eh?

[celestinarogers]

That puts the fact the ocean temperatures are off the charts in a new context. If we are ocean, then we all got a tremendous fever and are really sick. We need to wake up!

[TheGuruNetOn]

Isaac Asimov's book "New Encyclopedia of Science" talks about the salt water conveyor belt and how it generates the world climate.

[Roddy]

The ocean of course isn't quiet, but Frisk wrote a paper demonstrating that sound levels went up about 3.3 dB decade since the 1950s (3dB is a doubling of sound energy) due to economic activity, that is, container shipping, tying ocean ambient noise levels due to shipping to the global GDP. Despite some of the harms Cousteau may have committed, he also inspired thousands of people to go into ocean science.

[solotrotrotro]

i am very surprised to see an ocean specialist saying that a moon is just a featureless rock...
there are many good theories that defend the ocean currents swells and tide are linked by moon, and we can assume that made a crucial paper in evolution of life, some argue that without the moon the life wont be surged .
and, YES, point by point, we know much more about the moon than the oceans, its not just about maping or geography. Lets say we know 95% of moon and 35% of the ocean (just an exemple).
The thing is, the ocean is much more complex, big, and hard to study than the moon, and because of that we have more info on the moon.
And NO, the Artemis program nothing have to do with 'look back to blue marble Earth ' again, it just a checkpoint base to Mars and a validation plataform for a new long space exploring equipments.

[PatrickMcMahon-oi]

Wonderfully informative and a little uncomfortable, thank you though RI.

[hochathanfire]

Love the Conservation definition: Start from the waste and go from there 🥳🥳🥳💃💃💃💃🍶🍶🍶🍶‼️