The Wavewatcher's Companion

One bright February afternoon on a beach in Cornwall, Gavin<BR>Pretor-Pinney took a break from cloudspotting and started watching the<BR>waves rolling into shore. Mesmerised, he wondered where they had come<BR>from, and decided to find out. He soon realised that waves don't just<BR>appear on the ocean, they are everywhere around us, and our lives<BR>depend on them.<BR><BR><BR><BR><BR><BR>From the rippling beats of our hearts, to the movement of food through<BR>our digestive tracts and of signals across our brains, waves are the<BR>transport systems of our bodies. Everything we see and hear reaches us<BR>via light and sound waves, and our information age is reliant on the<BR>microwaves and infrared waves used by the telephone and internet<BR>infrastructure. From shockwaves unleashed by explosions to torsional<BR>waves that cause suspension bridges to collapse, from sonar waves that<BR>allow submarines to 'see' with sound to Mexican waves that sweep<BR>through stadium crowds... there were waves, it seemed, wherever Gavin<BR>looked. But what, he wondered, could they all have in common with ones<BR>we splash around in on holiday?<BR><BR><BR><BR><BR><BR>By the time he made the ultimate surfer's pilgrimage to Hawaii, Gavin<BR>had become a world-class wavewatcher, although he was still rubbish at<BR>surfing. And, while this fascinating, funny book may not teach you how<BR>to ride the waves, it will show you how to tune into the shapes,<BR>colours and forms of life's many undulations.<BR>