A gripping account of the ingenious minds who gathered together the greatest technological inventions of our species to create a machine that can see into our planet’s future with astonishing accuracy
Shall we take an umbrella… or evacuate the city? The Weather Machine is about a miraculous-seeming invention that helps us through our daily lives – and sometimes saves them – by allowing us to see into the future.
When Superstorm Sandy hit North America, weather scientists had accurately predicted its arrival a full eight days beforehand, saving countless lives. Their ability to do so is unprecedented in human history and draws on nearly every major invention of the last two centuries: Newtonian physics, telecommunications, spaceflight and super-computing.
In this gripping investigation, Andrew Blum takes us on a global journey to explain this awe-inspiring feat – from satellites several miles above the Earth’s surface, to ocean buoys thousands of miles from land, through some of the most ingenious minds and advanced algorithms at work today. Our destination: the simulated models they have constructed of our planet, which spin faster than time, turning chaos into science, offering glimpses of our future with eery precision.
This collaborative invention spans the Earth and relies on continuous co-operation between all nations – a triumph of human ingenuity and diplomacy that allows us to choose the right footwear each morning. In this new era of extreme weather, we may come to rely on its maintenance and survival for our own.
Reading Age 15 years through to adult.
RRP: Paperback NZ$35.00
Imprint Bodley Head London distributed in NZ by Penguin Random House New Zealand.
