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

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

First edition.

0375421610 (alk. paper)

New York : Pantheon, [2005]

©2005

English

x, 306 pages : illustrations ; 24 cm

QE565 .D63 2005

551.42/4

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.

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

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