Scientists are very suspicious of fundamental novelty. RM: There was a almost universal rejection of his theories to begin with And of course everyone wasn’t really happy, everyone became very unhappy. MG: He would write a paper, 1912, and he said, I think everybody will really be happy. How did that come about? Maybe the continents drifted apart. That means that this is part of the structure of the earth. MG: What was different about what Wegener saw, there were lines on the map that represented depths under the water. MG: He went to his office, his officemate said, ‘look at this beautiful atlas my parents gave me for Christmas.’ And he wrote to his fiancé, did you ever notice how South America fits into Africa? Let me pause and say there isn’t a child on Earth over the age of twelve who hasn’t had the same thought, right? You can see it. NO: I wouldn’t really call it a discovery, what he really had was an idea. MG: the way the icecap splits apart and fissures.All of this was part of his imagination when he made his discovery of continental drift. NO: And the way in which the ice floes form jigsaw puzzle pieces. MG: The travel in Greenland.his time with icebergs.
#ALFRED WEGNER HOW TO#
MG: Wegener had to learn how to hunt seals, how to drive a dogsled, how to travel on ice without being swept into open water, how to protect your dogs from polar bears. NO: Nobody ever said that arctic exploration was a picnic! Wegener is out there in the winter night taking these huge box kites and attaching recording instruments to them, and then winching them back down to get his instruments back. MG: It was adventure travel of a North pole South pole kind. NO: This is a time in history when one of the most exciting things you can do as a scientist is go on an arctic expedition. ĬHAPTER 2 - 1906-1908 GREENLAND EXPEDITION I He wants to write the best book on the physics of the atmosphere, and no one had ever studied the atmosphere in the high arctic before. MG: Wegener flew as much and as often as he could. He’s not the Wizard of Oz, he’s a scientist doing science. NO: He wants to take measurements of the atmosphere. MG: Getting into a balloon, and going up in the air for a meteorologist is like getting into a boat and going out on the ocean for an oceanographer. MG: Hardly anyone in the early 20th century said why are there oceans, and why are there continents? Wegener is a wonderful example of how science benefits from people coming from outside a scientific field and saying, “Why don’t you look at this way?” TITLE CARD: ANIMATED LIFE: ALFRED WEGENER’S DRIFTING CONTINENTS (title TBA)
Transcript Animated Life: Pangea This animated documentary tells the story of polar explorer Alfred Wegener, the unlikely scientist behind continental drift theory.
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