Dissertation Research: History of "The Coral Reef Problem" from Explorations to Explosions

项目概述“珊瑚礁问题”的历史，从探索到开发智力价值这个项目的目标是制作从欧洲博物学家在太平洋的第一次探索到20世纪中叶，通过美国在马绍尔群岛珊瑚礁的核武器试验计划的后果，新类型的珊瑚研究成为可能的历史。这个问题耗费了从海军政策制定者到科学管理者的各种参与者，一个由来自各种不同背景和学科的自然学家和科学家组成的多样化但共同认可的团体提出了这个问题。他们的共同点是关于珊瑚礁形成的共同论述，但他们的分歧有望为研究自然的实践和随着时间的变化而制定理论的方式提供见解。科学家们将珊瑚礁作为一个地方，将自然王国、现在和过去，以及个人和社区的概念并列在一起。珊瑚礁构成了许多关于自然研究应该如何划分的经典概念的交叉点：它们同时是动物、植物和矿物。一个珊瑚礁的“生命”将现在和古代联系在一起。它们被认为是复杂的生态系统，但研究它们的生长和形状的学生将它们视为有机个体。因此，在过去的200年里，本文中讨论的珊瑚礁问题对科学家来说一直具有持续的学术意义。这个项目将成为科学家们提出的想法的历史。当科学引起了政治和社会的关注--就像对进化和炸弹一样--珊瑚礁已经成为一些科学和文化最深刻问题的试验性和爆炸性的试验场。因此，任何希望了解科学是如何将珊瑚礁从我们理解的边缘带到我们对自然最复杂、最脆弱和最有价值的概念的中心的人，都会对这个项目感兴趣。它还将与历史学家、哲学家和科学教师密切相关，他们对在现代专业科学的发展过程中提出、回答、挑战和测试科学问题的方式感兴趣。这个项目展示了不同科学学科的成员--自然历史学家、地质学家、动物学家、生态学家和自然地理学家--如何着手解决完全相同的问题：珊瑚礁是如何形成的？

Project SummaryA History of the "Coral Reef Problem," from Explorations to ExplosionsIntellectual MeritThe objective of this project is to produce a history of what became knownas the "coral reef problem," from European naturalists' first explorationsin the Pacific to the mid-twentieth century, when new types of coralresearch were made possible through the aftermath of the U.S. nuclearweapons testing programs at the coral atolls of the Marshall Islands. Thisquestion consumed participants ranging from naval policymakers toscience administrators, and it was taken up by a diverse but mutuallyrecognized group of naturalists and scientists from a variety of distinctbackgrounds and disciplines. What united them was a common discourseon the formation of coral reefs, but what divided them promises to offerinsights into the practice of studying nature and the ways of formulatingtheories as they changed over this time.Scientists have used coral reefs as a place to juxtapose kingdoms ofnature, the present and the past, and conceptions of the individual and thecommunity. Reefs have constituted a point of intersection for many of theclassic notions of how the study of nature should be divided: they are atonce animal, vegetable, and mineral. The "life" of a single reef unites thepresent and the ancient past. They are renowned as complex ecosystems,but students of their growth and shapes have treated them as organicindividuals.For these reasons, the coral reef problem at issue in this dissertation hasbeen of sustained intellectual significance to scientists over the past twohundred years. The project will be a history of the ideas those scientistsproduced. And when science has commanded the attention of politics andthe fascination of society-as over evolution and the Bomb-coral reefshave been the experimental and explosive proving ground for some ofscience and culture's deepest reaching questions.Broader ImpactsThis project will be of interest, then, to anyone who hopes to understandhow science has brought coral reefs from the periphery of ourunderstanding to the center of our conceptions of what is most complex,fragile, and valuable about nature. It will also be of substantial relevanceto historians, philosophers, and science teachers interested in the way thatscientific problems have been asked, answered, challenged, and testedduring the development of modern professional science. This projectshows how members of very different scientific disciplines-naturalhistorians, geologists, zoologists, ecologists, and physical geographers-set about attacking the exact same question: how are coral reefs formed?