26. Océanologique

The marine station at Villefranche-sur-Mer, once an eighteenth century naval base,bathes in the light of the Mediterranean. I’ve returned from a very good conference there a week or so ago. Perhaps the most interesting part was a brief but intense debate I’m still thinking about, which concerned development in animals.

We also spent some time in the library, which has a complete set of the “Challenger” volumes, the fruit of a 1872-1876 expedition that pioneered oceanology. The HMS Challenger,...