Showing results by author "Stephen Gould" in All Categories

High in the Canadian Rockies is a small limestone quarry formed 530 million years ago called the Burgess Shale. It holds the remains of an ancient sea where dozens of strange creatures lived—a forgotten corner of evolution preserved in awesome detail. In this book, Stephen Jay Gould explores what the Burgess Shale tells us about evolution and the nature of history.

When published in 1981, The Mismeasure of Man was immediately hailed as a masterwork, the ringing answer to those who would classify people, rank them according to their supposed genetic gifts and limits. Yet the idea of of biology as destiny dies hard, as witness the attention devoted to The Bell Curve, whose arguments are here so effectively anticipated and thoroughly undermined.

Were dinosaurs really dumber than lizards? Why, after all, are roughly the same number of men and women born into the world? What led the famous Dr. Down to his theory of mongolism, and its racist residue? What do the panda's magical "thumb" and the sea turtle's perilous migration tell us about imperfections that prove the evolutionary rule? The wonders and mysteries of evolutionary biology are elegantly explored in these and other essays by the celebrated natural history writer Stephen Jay Gould.

More than any other modern scientists, Stephen Jay Gould has opened up to millions the wonders of evolutionary biology. His genius as an essayist lies in his unmatched ability to use his knowledge of the world, including popular culture, to illuminate the realm of science.

In this essay collection, Stephen Jay Gould examines the puzzles and paradoxes great and small that build nature's and humanity's diversity and order. He formulates a humanistic natural history, one that considers how humans have learned to study and understand nature, rather than a history of nature itself.

Few would question that humankind is the crowning achievement of evolution—that history yields progress over time from the primitive and simple to the more advanced and complex—or that identifying an existing trend can be helpful in making important life decisions. We have always identified trends as bad or good. But Stephen Jay Gould argues that this mode of interpretation is a bias that needs correcting.

For more than twenty-five years, paleontologist Stephen Jay Gould wrote a column called “The View of Life” for Natural History magazine. More than thirty entries from that column comprise this collection, which covers topics from dinosaurs to baseball and nearly everything in between related to natural history and evolution.

In this fascinating history of the age-old battle between Science and Religion, evolutionist Stephen Jay Gould argues that part of living the full human experience is achieving a balance between the spiritual and the rational."

Sound interesting? The author thinks so too! Listen to Bully for Brontosaurus and learn about natural history.

From paleontology, dinosaurs, and fossils to the fascinating and strange phenomena of life on Earth today, come the inspiration for this collection of Stephen Jay Gould's best essays. Fads to fungus, baseball to beeswax, Gould always circles back to the great themes of time, change, and history. Gould's inimitable style makes history and science accessible and relevant to all.

Among scientists who write, no one illuminates as well as Stephen Jay Gould does the wonderful workings of the natural world. Now in a new volume of collected essays—his sixth since Ever Since Darwin—Gould speaks of the importance of unbroken connections within our own lives and to our ancestral generations. Along with way, he opens to us the mysteries of fish tails, frog calls, and other matters, and shows once and for all why we must take notice when a seemingly insignificant creature is threatened, like the land snail Partula from Moorea, whose extinction he movingly relates.

The best selling author and evolutionary scientist holds the mirror up to all of our millennial passions in this wide-ranging discussion that reveals our foibles, absurdities, and uniqueness - in other words, our humanity.

What is our concept of a millennium and how has its meaning shifted? When did the new millennium begin? And why must our calendars be so complex, anyway? Best-selling author Stephen Jay Gould applies his wit and erudition to explore these questions, which cover one of today's most pressing subjects.

Evolutionary theory in the theme that binds together these essays on such seemingly disparate topics as the feeding habits of flamingos, flowers and snails that change from male to female and sometimes back again, and the extinction from baseball of the .400 hitter.

Over a century after Darwin published the Origin of Species, Darwinian theory is in a "vibrantly healthy state," writes Stephen Jay Gould, its most engaging and illuminating exponent. Exploring the "peculiar and mysterious particulars of nature," Gould introduces the listener to some of the many and wonderful manifestations of evolutionary biology.

Since the Renaissance, people have been plagued by the tense battle between science and religion. Revered evolutionist Stephen Jay Gould suggests, instead of choosing between the two, why not opt for a golden mean that accords dignity and distinction to each realm? With intelligence and clarity, Gould renders the complex simple and sheds new light on this dilemma. In this dazzling gem of contemporary cultural philosophy, Gould posits that science defines the natural world, while religion defines our moral world, and they both can coexist peacefully in respectful noninterference.

For more than twenty-five years, paleontologist Stephen Jay Gould wrote a column called “The View of Life” for Natural History magazine. More than twenty entries from that column comprise this collection.