To the pantheon of 19th-century scientists that includes Charles Darwin, Louis Pasteur, Michael Faraday, and Gregor Mendel, author Simon Winchester would like to add the name William Smith. A self-educated surveyor and consultant on coal mining projects, Smith was one of the first to suggest that rock strata beneath the earth's surface could be identified by the characteristic fossils found in each layer. He used his understanding to create the first map of England depicting the geological strata. This achievement, according to Winchester, paved the way for Darwin's world-altering insights into evolution, and it is the focus of Winchester's new book, The Map that Changed the World: William Smith and the Birth of Modern Geology.
展开▼
