title: Focus: knowing the ocean: a role for the history of science.
abstract: While most historians have treated the sea as a surface or a void, the history of science is well positioned to draw the ocean itself into history. The contributors to this Focus section build on the modest existing tradition of history of oceanography and extend that tradition to demonstrate both the insights to be gained by studying oceans historically and the critical role that the history of science should play in future environmental history of the ocean.
authors.forename: Helen M
authors.initials: HM
authors.lastname: Rozwadowski
mesh_terms: D005106:Exploratory Behavior; D009792:Oceans and Seas; D012586:Science