The evolution of scientific thinking

摘要

Reefs have long fascinated natural historians and geologists for their unearthly beauty, as well as their ability to produce prodigious amounts of carbonate sediment. Yet reefs offer more than their share of paradoxes. How do coral-reef islands seemingly grow from great depths in the middle of the oceans? What controls the production of all this limestone? And why do so many reefs form necklaces strung across the Pacific? These questions troubled the minds of nineteenth-century scientists and philosophers. The long, tortured and often sad history of how the 'coral reef problem' was finally solved is laid bare in this eloquent and thoughtful book.