Gillen D’Arcy Wood will speak about his new book, The Wake of HMS Challenger: How a Legendary Victorian Voyage Tells the Story of Our Oceans' Decline. In December 1872, HMS Challenger embarked on the first round-the-world oceanographic expedition, and for the next four years, Challenger’s naturalists explored the oceans, encountering never-before-seen marvels of marine life. They identified major ocean currents and defining features of the seafloor; they measured worldwide sea temperatures and chemistry, creating baseline data for all ocean research since. And, most spectacularly of all, they collected nearly five thousand sea creatures and plants new to science. They had no way of knowing that the incredible undersea aquarium they were documenting was on the verge of catastrophic change. Wood looks afresh at this legendary scientific odyssey and shows why, 150 years later, its legacy looms larger than ever. His book offers a stunning before-and-after picture of our global oceans — a reminder of what we have lost since the Victorian age and an urgent call to preserve what remains of the diverse life and wild beauty of our planet’s final frontier. Copies of the book will be available for purchase and signing. This event is free and open to the public, and refreshments will be served.