free book writing templates microsoft Reef Madness: Charles Darwin, Alexander Agassiz, and the Meaning of Coral By David Dobbs

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Expeditions such as the Challenger which are well known in marine biology but I guess I never truly understood or appreciated its significance Dobbs is a wonderful writer and did a fantastic job brining all the historical figure to life the book was extensively researched and it really brought out the nuances of the characters including both good and bad aspects of their personality David Dobbs The deductive theorist is cooking a meal the aroma of which the inductive investigator can scarcely resist It was a lot of fun to read and discuss science during the 19th century with my lab and see how much has changed from then to now Also interesting to learn about the lead scientists that head speared coral reef research David Dobbs It took me so long to finish this book It s not that because it s bad or uninteresting.

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But with the theory of how coral reefs were formed rather than evolution which Alex at least grudgingly accepted This is mainly the story of how this question was debated it was not resolved until the 1950 s The conflict between L A Agassiz and C Darwin was to a large degree a conflict between the older Baconian idea that science must be inductive and the approach of Darwin and Charles Lyell and a few others that deductive reasoning was important for real advances in scientific knowledge The book is well researched with many quotes and references to the multiple interactions among the scientific community David Dobbs David Dobbs writes articles and essays on science.

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Although I m not a huge fan of books focused on the history of science I felt I learned a lot from this particular tome it filled in many knowledge gaps surrounding this history of my own scientific field For example it s just that it s not the kind of hard to put down Pages by pages we are to follow heated battles of scientists probably boring in details for non science enthusiasts a seemingly unfair war between the towering figure of Charles Darwin one of the most pre eminent Victorian scientist of the time with the American Alexander Agassiz son of the notorious Louis Agassiz Louis was seen burning Darwin s books in The Dante Club because he thinks Darwin s theory of natural selection is a blasphemy to God s words concering the creation of the Earth and all its inhabitants What comes to your mind when you hear the word scientist You might recall the images supplied to you by popular media surgical cold blooded people thinking logically shooing away any hint of emotions or exuberant feelings Reef Madness shows the opposite Here come the lively people sometimes blinded by their beautiful pet theories that they would vehemently slash right and left to outcompete their rivals that they would forget what they should have done as scientists Well Science has to wait until the great Karl Popper lay down what Science really is the principles that make Freudism and Marxism cannot be categorised as Science but surely ruling out the facts that counter your arguments hypothesis or theory is not a proper thing to do by people trying to find the truth Alex despite accepting evolution unlike his father was burnt by the anger caused by all the ridicule directed towards his father and was spurred on by his belief that Darwin and co had erred in their reef building theories Nearing the end comes the shock when throughout the book we ve been lead to sympathize to one of the parties involved in the madness we ll be shown a tragic outcome of the battles And that s when I felt the electrifying consequences of all the events and interactions portrayed in the book and they compelled me to add another star to my rating It reminds me once again how Science and scientists must work Not only observation and facts are needed imagination is also a part of Science. Book Reef madness interactive Truly wonderful although heart breaking at the same time David Dobbs Darwin is well known for his theory of evolution what I was not aware was of another theory he proposed That of how corals are formed For than 60 years the theory was bitterly fought More longer than the idea of evolution perhaps This wonderful book is the story of this pitched battle fought in intellectual circles in papers and publications A lovely read for any natural history aficionado The first few chapters are quite a bit of a drag but slowly build up to the core of the book Well researched and I learnt quite a lot of geography along with natural history David Dobbs The first half which was a lot of the back story kind of slogged a littleAlexander Agassiz spent that much of the book escaping his father Louis Agasssiz shadow Once he really became engaged with the question of coral reef formation the book really took off If you have already read much about this time period of the questions of faith v science then a lot of this will be a road already traveled David Dobbs

Reef Madness: Charles Darwin, Alexander Agassiz, and the Meaning of Coral By David Dobbs

0375421610

9780375421617

English

320

Hardcover

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Reef Madness opens up the world of nineteenth century science and philosophy at a moment when the nature of scientific thought was changing when what we call science the word did not even exist was spoken of as natural philosophy and was a part of theology the study of God s natural works This is how what is now called science until then based on the presence and hence the authority of God moved toward reliance on observable phenomena as evidence of truth At the book s center two of that century s most bitter one about the theory of natural selection the other about the origin of coral Caught in the grip of these controversies were two men considered to be the gods of the nineteenth century scientific Charles Darwin the most controversial and ultimately the most influential and the Swiss born zoologist Louis Agassiz almost forgotten today but at the time even lionized than Darwin Agassiz was a paleontologist the first to classify the fossil fish of the planet and the first to conceive the idea of the ice age that altered our view of the Earth He taught at Harvard founded the Museum of Comparative Zoology was one of the founders of the Smithsonian and of the National Academy of Sciences and was considered the greatest lecturer of his time eloquent charming spellbinding Among his Emerson Theodore Roosevelt William James and Thoreau Agassiz believed that nature was so vast complicated and elegantly ordered that it could only be the work of God We see how this central principle of Agassiz s was threatened by Darwin s most central theory that species change through natural causes that we exist not because we re meant to but because we happen to Agassiz forced either to disprove Darwin s principle or give up his own went to war full tilt against the theory of natural selection It was a war that beyond its own drama had a second important effect on the new world of science David Dobbs tells how Agassiz s son Alexander one of the most respected naturalists of his time who witnessed his father s rise and tragic defeat yet supported the theory of natural selection over his father s objections himself became locked in combat with Darwin The subject of contention was the coral reef problem As a young man of twenty six Darwin with only a small amount of data put forth a theory about the formation of these huge beautiful forms composed of the skeletons of tiny animals that survive in shallow water It explained how the reefs could rise on foundations that emerged from the Pacific s greatest depths This became the subject of Darwin s first long paper and it propelled him to the highest circles of British science The obsessed younger Agassiz spent the next thirty years in a vain effort to disprove Darwin s coral theory traveling 300000 miles of ocean and looking at every coral mass In so doing he laid the groundwork for oceanography through which in 1950 the question of the origin of coral was finally resolved In Reef Madness Dobbs looks at the nature of scientific theory He shows how Darwin was crucially influenced by his encounters with the Agassiz father and son and how the coral problem prefigured the fierce battle about evolution Original illuminating and fascinating Reef Madness uses these large human struggles which devastated two lives and shaped the thinking of another to make real the Victorian world of science and to show how it affected the century that followed and continues to this day to affect our own Reef Madness Charles Darwin Alexander Agassiz and the Meaning of CoralThis is a book I had to read for my Geography of the Seas class where we had to write a book evaluation in the style of The Northern Mariner Overall this was an enjoyable read and I would recommend it if you have an interest in Darwin the Agassiz s or coral reefs The Review David Dobbs Reef Madness Charles Darwin Alexander Agassiz and the Meaning of Coral United States Pantheon Books 2005 265pp. Reef Madness memoir essay 00 hardcover ISBN 0 375 42161 0Reef Madness embarks on a three part journey to the nineteenth century and dives deep into the lives of several influential scientists It discusses how these scientists helped to shape scientific theory while putting forth their own theories about the Earth and its wonders In particular the novel focuses on two key debates of the time of natural selection and of the origin and structure of coral reefs termed the coral reef problem. EPub Reef madness combat Numerous scientists and other influentials are referenced throughout however the main focus in on Louis Agassiz his son Alexander Alex and Charles Darwin The senior Agassiz found himself in a longstanding and heated debate with Darwin over evolution and natural selection Darwin s theories now accepted were false in the opinion of creationist Louis Mandelbrote 2009 The first 100 pages or so of the novel focuses heavily on Louis his early life scientific views accomplishments and his subsequent downfall following the Darwin debate Based on the cover images and title the intense focus on Louis was a drawback One would infer from those listed above that the focus would be on Darwin Alex Agassiz and the coral reef problem However Alex Darwin and coral reefs do not make a significant appearance in the writing until nearly halfway through The coral reef problem becomes the central focus as the story moves away from Louis and turns to his quiet and hardworking son Alex who was often under the shadow of his father s fall from science However Alex was in his own right and with his own merit a fine scientist who worked with intricate details and did extensive specimen collecting Goodale 1912 On one side of the coral reef debate Darwin substantially supported by geologist James Dwight Dana put forth early in his career a theory about subsidence Darwin 1842 Darwin saw reef formation as a continuous process that transformed the fringing reef surrounding a slowly sinking island to first a barrier reef separated from the island by a lagoon and finally a ring shaped atoll pp 151 Sir John Murray put forth his own theory which was backed up Agassiz who heavily researched and collected data to prove it true over many decades and nautical miles Murray believed that reef foundations were formed when a high submarine mound accumulated enough planktonic debris to reach coral friendly depths allowing coral to grow into an atoll pp 168 He supported uplift versus Darwin s subsidence After years of extensive research Alex developed his own theory in efforts to disprove Darwin now his own rival He believed that reefs grew on foundations lifted into place which were then shaped by erosion He also believed that one general theory could not explain reef formation instead each coral reef area had to be observed and classified as separate entities Alex now had the evidence to back his theory and the means to discredit Darwin However he was lax in getting his ideas published for he feared resistance and the overwhelming task of putting his ideas together in a volume of works Agassiz died before his theory was submitted to academic literature Dobbs does a fine job of presenting both sides of each debate along with an abundance of facts and data At the conclusion of the novel Darwin s theory was proven correct after a 1950 s drill While Agassiz was wrong his extensive work into coral reefs provided the science world with compelling work thousands of specimens and extensive oceanographic data The best features of this novel were the letters and correspondence excerpts from various scientists between one another It offered a personal glance at their lives and their developing theories In terms of the writing style not only was it scientific and professional it was well structured and presented It often felt like a biography mixed in with humorous personal letters and strict scientific facts which created a entertaining yet informative read Suggested readers and purchasers of this book would be anyone with an interest in early scientific theory controversial science debates or anyone with an interest in the lives and work of both Agassiz s and Darwin While the book is heavy on theory it is very readable and could be interpreted and understood by a university geography student However a reader with a keen interest in marine science would be suited for this novel The author of Reef Madness is David Dobbs an American science writer and novelist Dobbs has written regularly for The New York Times Magazine The Atlantic National Geographic Nature The Guardian and Wired Novels written by Dobbs include The Northern Forest and The Great Gulf Fishermen Scientists and the Struggle to Revive the World s Greatest Fishery. Reef madnesses 2 At present he is working on another novel The Orchid and the Dandelion A story written by Dobbs for The Atlantic entitled The Orchid Children has been chosen for Ecco Harper Perennial s Best American Science Writing 2010 He is highly connected to social media having a Twitter and Tumblr He also operates a science culture and sports blog through Neuron Culture He lives in Vermont. Book Reef madness melee Rebecca CourageSt John s NewfoundlandMemorial University David Dobbs Pretty dense at times but I powered through The best part of reading this was that I was surrounded by the book I work at Harvard and I borrowed this book from the Museum of Comparative Zoology the museum that Louis Agassiz created I live down the street from where Alex Agassiz s wife is buried at the Forest Hills Cemetery It helped me feel connected and these events seemed closer in place if not time David Dobbs Read for lab book club Overall not my fave A history book on some lightly relevant white dude scientists love Darwin but still didn t really start talking about coral reefs u til page160 260 I did learn a lot and it has provided for a resurgence of scientific philosophy in my life David Dobbs 3. Book Reef madness interactive 5 star a good history of science but not too exciting of a writing style a bit dull compared to popsci writers like Prosek or Casey see below Louise Agassiz and his superstar scientist status in the usa no really though his theories were all wrong on geology and evolution inspired his son Alexander and Charles Darwin to promulgate their own theories of evolution focusing on coral reefs Agassiz the son and Darwin were at wild odds on how reefs were created Darwin was way correct and had an international debate about it This was a turning point in modern science and communication because of the research writing and ultimately the success of the theory of evolution grew into what we recognize today a method of PUBLISHED hypotheses research citation and vindication or refutation and moving the whole mess along just a little bit. Reef madnesslive Eels An Exploration from New Zealand to the Sargasso of the World s Most Mysterious FishThe Devil s Teeth A True Story of Survival and Obsession David Dobbs This is an historical account of the interactions among Charles Darwin Louis Agassiz and Alexander Agassiz the son of Louis Louis A. Book Reef madness combat the darling of American Science during the mid 19th century was a staunch and outspoken creationist His virulent attacks on Darwin ended with his almost complete loss of credibility as a scientist His son Alex also butted heads with Darwin s theories medicine and culture for The New York Times NY Times Book Review Atlantic WIRED et alia He also wrote the 1 Kindle Single My Mother s Lover and books describing fierce arguments about forests fish and Darwin s reefs He lives in Vermont. introduction illustrations notes bibliography index US 25..