This book examines, from a number of perspectives, a period of change in the nature of scientific thought, as represented in the 19th century debate over the formation of coral atolls and reefs between Charles Darwin and Alexander Agassiz, the son of Darwin's great opponent Louis Agassiz. Though the son opposed his father in siding with Darwin's theory of evolution, he made it his life's work to disprove Darwin's theory on coral; while ultimately shown to be incorrect, Agassiz's work laid the foundations of modern oceanography.

Magpie -- Neuchâtel -- Freiburg -- Cambridge -- Fixity -- Transmutation -- Selection -- A still greater sorrow -- The pleasure of gambling -- To light: Murray's reefs -- A question of science -- Accrual -- "A conspiracy of silence" -- To sea -- The last archipelago -- A connected account -- Eniwetok.