Alfred Wegener and the Theory of Continental Drift

在科学史上，有时会出现这样的情况：一位有先见之明的科学家研究了所有的证据，提出了一个在他或她有生之年被拒绝的理论，只是这个理论在后来的某个时候得到了证实。阿尔弗雷德·韦格纳（1880-1930）也许是20世纪这类科学家的典范。他最出名的是他的大陆漂移理论，该理论在20世纪60年代由美国国家科学基金会支持的海洋边缘钻探计划得到证实。然而，当韦格纳提出他的理论时，这些探险的结果还远远没有出来。然而，韦格纳理论的失败也许同样重要的是，他那个时代的地质学家看不到任何可行的机制来解释大陆的漂移——直到板块构造学的发展以及钻探探险的新证据，才向大多数科学家提供了支持大陆漂移的令人信服的论据。然而，韦格纳的重要性甚至超越了他对这个“不成熟”理论的研究。他还在气象学（云物理、降水理论）、地球物理学（大气光学、固体地球物理学）、古气候学（古赤道和古地极固定的气候带）、月球地质学（撞击坑理论）、极地勘探和地质学等方面做出了重要贡献。尽管有这些贡献，韦格纳的生活和工作在英语方面还没有重要的学术研究。格林教授的目标就是进行这样一项研究。他将利用这笔资金来检查档案馆和博物馆，其中包括韦格纳使用过的文件、信件、照片、探险日记、笔记本和设备。这些材料在丹麦、格陵兰、西德和奥地利。

In the history of science, there occurs on occasion a case of a prescient scientist who examines all the evidence and presents a theory which is rejected in his or her own life-time, only thave this theory confirmed at some later point. Alfred Wegener, (1880-1930), is perhaps the paradigm example of such a scientist for the 20th century. He is best known for his theory of continental drift, confirmed in the 1960's with the NSF-supported ocean-margin drilling program. When Wegener proposed his theory, however, it was long before the results of these expeditions were available. Perhaps as important, though, for the failure of the Wegener theory, was the fact that the geologists of his time could see no feasible mechanism for accommodating the drift of the continents--it took the development of plate tectonics along with the new evidence of the drilling expedition to present most scientists with convincing arguments in favor of continental drift. Wegener is important, however, even beyond his work on this "premature" theory. He also made fundamental contributions to meteorology (cloud physics, theory of precipitation), geophysics (atmospheric optics, solid earth geophysics), paleoclimatology (paleo-equator and paleo-pole fixing by climate zonation), lunar geology (theory of impact craters), and polar exploration and geology. Despite these contributions, there has been no significant scholarly study of Wegener's life and work in English. Professor Greene aims to produce such a study. He will use the support from this grant to examine archives and museums containing papers, letters, photographs, expedition diaries, notebooks and equipment used by Wegener. These materials are in Denmark, Greenland, West Germany and Austria.