Alfred Wegener (1880-1930)
by Patrick Hughes • February 8, 2001

Alfred Wegener

"Utter, damned rot!" said the president of the prestigious American Philosophical Society.

"If we are to believe [this] hypothesis, we must forget everything we have learned in the last 70 years and start all over again," said another American scientist.

Anyone who "valued his reputation for scientific sanity" would never dare support such a theory, said a British geologist.

Thus did most in the scientific community ridicule the concept that would revolutionize the earth sciences and revile the man who dared to propose it, German meteorological pioneer and polar explorer Alfred Wegener. Science historians compare his story with the tribulations of Galileo.

next: A Geographic Jigsaw Puzzle

  Pullquote -- Science historians compare Wegener's story with the trials and tribulations of Galileo.

On the Shoulders of Giants
Alfred Wegener
A Geographic Jigsaw Puzzle
Resume of a Revolutionary
The Origin of Continents and Oceans
The Wrath of Science
Vindication of a Visionary
The Obligation to Be a Hero
Recommended Reading

Top: A portrait of Alfred Wegener. (Drawing by Hailey King)