Sir C. Wyville ThomsonBorn 5 Mar 1830; died 10 Mar 1882 at age 52.Sir C(harles) Wyville Thomson was a Scottish naturalist who was one of the first marine biologists to describe life in the ocean depths. He led the famous 110,224-km (68,890 mile) scientific expedition of HMS Challenger in (1872-6) which trawled the depths of the oceans for new forms of life. This was the world's first foray into big science. The Expedition was to circumnavigate the world in the steam corvette, HMS Challenger, with a goal, as resolved by the British Association (1871) of "carrying the physical and biological Exploration of the deep-sea into all the great oceanic centres". The extensive biological collections, together with soundings, bottom samples, and chemical and physical observations, presented the first broad view of the character of the oceans. |
