Welcome! This page provides links to resources I provide as a guest speaker on cruise ships throughout the world.
Viking Sky World Cruise 2024
Here are some key resources that I mention in many of my lectures:
Video explanation of Deep Time – putting the History of Life on our Planet into perspective using a football field.
Book about Marie Tharp and Her Seafloor Map
Filled with gorgeous illustrations by acclaimed artist Raúl Colón, this illustrated biography shares the story of female scientist, Marie Tharp, a pioneering woman scientist and the first person to ever successfully map the ocean floor. For Marie, it was like piecing together an immense jigsaw puzzle.
Award-winning author Robert Burleigh tells her story of imagination and perseverance. Beautifully illustrated by Raúl Colón, this book that will inspire readers to follow their dreams.
Marie Tharp was always fascinated by the ocean. Taught to think big by her father who was a mapmaker, Marie wanted to do something no one had ever done before: map the bottom of the Atlantic Ocean.
Throughout history, others had tried and failed to measure the depths of the oceans. Sailors lowered weighted ropes to take measurements. Later, scientists measured the depth by using echo sounder machines to track how long it would take a sound wave sent from a ship to the sea floor to come back.
Despite being turned away from ships because having a woman on board was “bad luck”—Marie was determined to succeed. And she did, becoming the first person to chart the ocean floor, helping us better understand the planet we call home.
Soundings: The Story of the Remarkable Woman Who Mapped the Ocean Floor
Her maps of the ocean floor have been called “one of the most remarkable achievements in modern cartography”, yet no one knows her name.
Soundings is the story of the enigmatic, unknown woman behind one of the greatest achievements of the 20th century. Before Marie Tharp, geologist and gifted draftsperson, the whole world, including most of the scientific community, thought the ocean floor was a vast expanse of nothingness.
In 1948, at age 28, Marie walked into the newly formed geophysical lab at Columbia University and practically demanded a job. The scientists at the lab were all male; the women who worked there were relegated to secretary or assistant. Through sheer willpower and obstinacy, Marie was given the job of interpreting the soundings (records of sonar pings measuring the ocean’s depths) brought back from the ocean-going expeditions of her male colleagues. The marriage of artistry and science behind her analysis of this dry data gave birth to a major work: the first comprehensive map of the ocean floor, which laid the groundwork for proving the then-controversial theory of continental drift.
“Stung! On Jellyfish Blooms and the Future of the Ocean” by Lisa-ann Gershwin.
This is an important book — it provides a good explanation of the science behind some difficult concepts… including the idea that ocean ecosystems are likely shifting from the high energy “muscles & jaws” food chains to “weedy” opportunistic food chains with jellyfish as the top predators.
Should be required reading for biology students worldwide (and every cruise ship passenger! OK, maybe not… but if you’ve attended any of my lectures this book will help you to amaze and inform your fellow travelers.)
Photos and videos bring our stories to life!
Images of all sorts make our lives so much more interesting in the 21st Century. Through images we can immerse ourselves in people, places and wildlife that we’ve had the pleasure of photographing. What a wonderful world we can experience! We can fill our lives with the most beautiful, intriguing, inspiring and poignant images from around the world!
What do we do with all our great images from our adventures!? That is a really big question.
How do we share them with family and friends?
Download my FREE guide to creating your own eBooks as a free and easy way of sharing your photos and memories.
