Bibliograph

Reef madness, Charles Darwin, Alexander Agassiz, and the meaning of coral, David Dobbs

Type

Label

Reef madness, Charles Darwin, Alexander Agassiz, and the meaning of coral, David Dobbs

Language

eng

Bibliography note

Includes bibliographical references (p. 281-288) and index

resource.biographical

contains biographical information

Illustrations

illustrations

Index

index present

Literary Form

non fiction

Main title

Reef madness

Nature of contents

bibliography

Oclc number

55077824

Responsibility statement

David Dobbs

Sub title

Charles Darwin, Alexander Agassiz, and the meaning of coral

Summary

This book examines, from a number of perspectives, a period of change in the nature of scientific thought, as represented in the 19th century debate over the formation of coral atolls and reefs between Charles Darwin and Alexander Agassiz, the son of Darwin's great opponent Louis Agassiz. Though the son opposed his father in siding with Darwin's theory of evolution, he made it his life's work to disprove Darwin's theory on coral; while ultimately shown to be incorrect, Agassiz's work laid the foundations of modern oceanography

Table Of Contents

Magpie -- Neuchâtel -- Freiburg -- Cambridge -- Fixity -- Transmutation -- Selection -- A still greater sorrow -- The pleasure of gambling -- To light: Murray's reefs -- A question of science -- Accrual -- "A conspiracy of silence" -- To sea -- The last archipelago -- A connected account -- Eniwetok

Classification