Abstract: Most of my life’s work has emanated from thousands of hours looking at corals. And then I’ve spent endless hours in front of a computer screen, as have we all. And, I’ll confess, I’ve spent even more time just thinking. What in all this can be called research or science? I put my case and leave it to you to consider, and decide, how these ways and means might have changed today.

Biography: Charlie Veron was the first full-time researcher on the Great Barrier Reef and the first scientist employed by AIMS, becoming Chief Scientist of that organisation in 1997. He has published on almost anything to do with corals from palaeontology, taxonomy and biogeography to physiology and molecular science. Then more widely on other subjects including evolution, mass extinctions and conservation. He was awarded the Darwin Medal for his work on evolution, the AMSA Jubilee Pin and the Australasian Science Prize for coral taxonomy, a Eureka, Whitley and other awards for various books, and more recently the Lifetime Achievement Award from the American Academy of Underwater Science for the book, and now website, Corals of the World (2000).