Böcker av Bill Francois

If we were able to listen under water, what would we hear? What would we learn? How would it change us?With erudition and charm, marine scientist and orator Bill François takes us on a deep dive into the secret lives of the world's aquatic creatures, from musical whales and immortal eels to the cod that discovered America and the herring that almost caused a military conflict -to name but a few. We hear the songs of seahorses and scallops, eavesdrop on the conversations of lobsters, and swim in the glow of the fluorescent jellyfish. A poetic blend of ancient myths, modern science, and storytelling through the ages, Eloquence of the Sardine is an invitation and guide to a dreamlike underwater world where the legends are often more believable than the incredible reality. This is nature writing at its best -informative, captivating, and accessible, with a personal angle, about an endlessly fascinating and still mysterious subject.A seafood platter or a day at the beach will never be the same.

Humans have identified just a fraction of the 2.2 million species living in the sea. Roughly 91% of all marine species remain unknown: myths still to be written, discoveries still to be made, blank pages with room to dream . . . As a small boy, Bill François was frightened of deep water. Until a chance encounter with the elusive sardine set him on course for a life in marine science: a mission to better understand, and preserve, the underwater world, to find his place in that ecosystem and learn how to converse harmoniously with the ocean.In a series of exquisitely rendered vignettes of marine life, François invites us on a whistle-stop global tour to reveal the mysteries of the sea, beginning with the simple eloquence of the sardine. He unpicks the sound of the sea - an underwater symphony orchestra voiced by a choir of fish - and deciphers the latest scientific discoveries on the immunity of coral and the changing gender of wrasses. We visit the depths of underwater Paris as François delves into the mysterious world of the eel and explore an extraordinary three-generational friendship between humans and killer whales, and the role a shoal of herrings played in Cold War tensions.Throughout, François effortlessly brings the inner workings of fish to life - their language, their emotions, their societal rituals. He also makes a case for why we should look to the sea for inspiration for improving society and investigates the shocking journey from sea to plate.Drawing on history, myth and legend, but always grounded in science, The Eloquence of the Sardine will change the way you think about the sea in the most poetic of ways.*Bill François is a physicist passionate about the marine world. He studied at the ENS school in Paris and then devoted himself to research on hydrodynamics. The eloquence contests he won, such as the Le Grand Oral on France 2, propelled him to become passionate about his other world: that of words. He mixes these universes to relay the importance of protecting our oceans.