A collection of essays by reknown scientist Jay Stephen Gould drawn from his columns in Natural History. The essays deal with topics such as: evolutionary opportunism (nature is a tinkerer, making the most of what's available in the course of adapting to the environment); new information on Darwin and his contemporaries; racism and cultural relativism; the evolutionary pattern of sudden rapid change; the origin of birds or the warm-bloodedness of dinosaurs; and, Teilhard de Chardin as a co-conspirator in the Piltdown hoax.

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. Ever Since Darwin, Stephen Jay Gould's first book, has sold more than a quarter of a million copies. Like all succeeding collections by this unique writer, it brings the art of the scientific essay to unparalleled heights.

This text is a metaphor for the way individuals and unpredictable events influence history. In response history, suggests the author, is the best model for evolution. The author explores the science of improbable outcomes in this wide ranging book written on the evolutionary theme.

"Darwin relegated humanity to a species descended from apes ; Stephen Jay Gould adds that it is bound for extinction. Why all species, including our own, are destined to die out is just one of the fascinating questions addressed in this collection of essays by the author of Ever Since Darwin and The Panda's Thumb. In considering them, Stephen Jay Gould challenges the view that science is irrelevant to life. Darwinism has changed our view of the world and Gould brilliantly conveys here the active excitement of modern evolutionary theory. Fair, amusing, perceptive, eminently readable, Gould looks at facts that -- if we even know them in the first place -- we take for granted and, with a true scientist's desire for knowledge, digs beneath them to uncover their significance for evolutionary theory" -- Back cover.

"Nature is so wondrously complex and varied that almost anything possible does happen....I rejoice in its] multifariousness and leave the chimera of certainty to politicians and preachers." --from Ever Since Darwin Upon his death in 2002, Stephen Jay Gould stood at the pinnacle among observers of the natural world, recognized by Congress as a "living legend." His prodigious legacy--sixteen best-selling and prize-winning books, dozens of scientific papers, an unbroken series of three hundred essays in Natural History --combined to make Gould the most widely read science writer of our time. This indispensable collection of forty-eight pieces from his brilliant oeuvre includes selections from classics such as Ever Since Darwin and The Mismeasure of Man , plus articles and speeches never before published in book form. This volume, the last that will bear his name, spotlights his elegance, depth, and sheer pleasure in our world--a true celebration of an extraordinary mind.

The world's most revered and eloquent interpreter of evolutionary ideas offers here a work of explanatory force unprecedented in our time--a landmark publication, both for its historical sweep and for its scientific vision.With characteristic attention to detail, Stephen Jay Gould first describes the content and discusses the history and origins of the three core commitments of classical Darwinism: that natural selection works on organisms, not genes or species; that it is almost exclusively the mechanism of adaptive evolutionary change; and that these changes are incremental, not drastic. Next, he examines the three critiques that currently challenge this classic Darwinian edifice: that selection operates on multiple levels, from the gene to the group; that evolution proceeds by a variety of mechanisms, not just natural selection; and that causes operating at broader scales, including catastrophes, have figured prominently in the course of evolution.Then, in a stunning tour de force that will likely stimulate discussion and debate for decades, Gould proposes his own system for integrating these classical commitments and contemporary critiques into a new structure of evolutionary thought.In 2001 the Library of Congress named Stephen Jay Gould one of America's eighty-three Living Legends--people who embody the "quintessentially American ideal of individual creativity, conviction, dedication, and exuberance." Each of these qualities finds full expression in this peerless work, the likes of which the scientific world has not seen--and may not see again--for well over a century. --