Stephen Jay Gould

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Works

Wonderful Life: The Burgess Shale and the Nature of History

Stephen Jay Gould

Tucked into the Canadian Rockies is a small limestone quarry formed 530 million years ago called the Burgess Shale. Discovered early in the century, the shale holds the remains of an ancient sea that nurtured more varities of life than can be found in all of our modern oceans.

Darwinian theory says that animals living so long ago were necessarily simple in design and limited in scope. But more recent interpretations unexpectedly reveal the great diversity locked in the shale.

Explosive stuff, for it blasts the belief that the history of life has been a…

 

The Mismeasure of Man

Stephen Jay Gould

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.

And yet the idea of innate limits—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 by Stephen Jay Gould. In this edition Dr. Gould traces the subsequent history of the controversy on innateness right through The Bell Curve.…

 

The Panda's Thumb: More Reflections in Natural History

Stephen Jay Gould

The Panda’s Thumb will introduce a new generation of readers to this unique writer, who has taken the art of the scientific essay to new heights.

 
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