Ice
The Nature, the History, and the Uses of an Astonishing Substance
Like the adventurer who circled an iceberg to see it on all sides, Mariana Gosnell, former Newsweek reporter and author of Zero Three Bravo, a book about flying a small plane around the United States, explores ice in all its complexity, grandeur, and significance.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. In nature it is found in myriad forms, from the delicate needle ice that crunches underfoot in a winter meadow to the massive, centuries-old ice that forms the world’s glaciers. Scientists theorize that icy comets delivered to Earth the molecules needed to get life started, and ice ages…
Mariana Gosnell was born and grew up in Columbus, Ohio, and graduated from Ohio Wesleyan University with a major in fine art. She worked for many years at Newsweek, where she reported on medicine and science. She is the author of a previous book, Zero Three Bravo: Solo Across America in a Small Plane, and her articles appear in many magazines including Smithsonian and National Wildlife. She lives in New York City and summers at Lake of the Woods in Canada.
