Advances in seismic tomography of the mantle, greater knowledge of mineralogical phase changes right down to its base and modelling of processes within the core have revolutionised ideas on the physical aspects of deep mantle processes that contribute to convection and magmatism. The thermal features of the deep Earth are of crucial importance, so it is excellent to see a timely review of how heat moves at and around the core-mantle boundary (CMB) (Lay, T. et al. 2008. Core-mantle boundary heat flow. Nature Geoscience, v. 1, p. 25-32). The review gives a readable means of catching up with developments, using simple and not too speculative diagrams. You can find plenty about temperatures and physical properties at the CMB, the various contributions to heat flow and their magnitudes, and the significance of the newly discovered transformation of the deep mantle ‘catch-all’ mineral perovskite to another phase, post-perovskite. Heat that flows from the core into the lower mantle, as much as a third of the total current surface flux of about 45 terawatts, must make a profound contribution to convection in the core and thus to the geomagnetic dynamo. But there is a temperature contrast at the CMB of 500 to 1800 degrees that surely must affect physical processes in the deepest mantle, such as the initiation of mantle plumes. A puzzling new discovery is of ultra-low seismic velocities in the bottom few tens of kilometres of mantle, which  Thorne Lay, John Herlund and Bruce Buffett discuss. Finally, the whole of Earth history encapsulates the evolution of heat flow, which underpins the dynamics of our planet. The historically complex interplay between evolving sources of heat – inherited from Earth accretion and Moon formation; radiogenic sources, and physical and chemical phenomena that are played out as the core evolves – should be curricular issues for all Earth scientists.