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Stephen Jay Gould
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Etching Musei Wormiani Stephen Jay Gould (1941-2002) was an evolutionary biologist and paleontologist who studied and published countless volumes on evolutionary theory and became a controversial figure in the scientific world. Early in his career he collaborated with Niles Eldredge in developing a theory of evolution that became known as Punctuated Equilibrium. Upon examining fossilized evidence, the two scientists argued that most species evolve rapidly over relatively short periods of time followed by long periods of evolutionary stability. This argument challenged the traditional Darwinian Theory of gradual and steady adaptation over long periods of evolutionary history. Gould believed this revelation challenged certain suppositions of Darwin’s, but was largely in line with Darwinian Theory.
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Stephen Jay Gould is an American paleontologist and writer of popular science, born in 1941. He proposed (1972), with Niles Eldredge, the theory of punctuated equilibrium, wherein evolutionary change occurs relatively rapidly in comparatively brief periods of environmental stress, separated by longer periods of evolutionary stability. He has become widely-known through his popular science essays in Natural History magazine and a number of books, including The Panda's Thumb, The Flamingo's Smile, It's a Wonderful Life, and others.
Writing with bracing intelligence and clarity, internationally renowned evolutionist and bestselling author Stephen Jay Gould sheds new light on a dilemma that has plagued thinking people since the Renaissance: the rift between science and religion. Instead of choosing them, Gould asks, why not opt for a golden mean that accords dignity and distinction to each realm?
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Perhaps more than any other contemporary American scientist Stephen Jay Gould has presented the modes, implications, benefits, and shortcomings of science to a literate public. As an inventive and productive scholar he has shaped and participated in crucial debates of the biological and geological sciences, particularly with regard to the theory of evolution, the interpretation of fossil evidence, and the meaning of diversity and change in biology. As the readership for his nearly twenty books and hundreds of essays, reviews, and articles has grown he has become one of the most popular and well-known writers and lecturers on scientific topics. He has distinguished himself by elaborating his critique of contemporary evolutionary theory via an eclectic range of discourse, deriving inspiration from his personal reflections across an astonishing array of historical and humanistic disciplines, popular culture, and sports.
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Stephen Jay Gould, professor of geology at Harvard, is very popular in America. Press reviews of him are very favorable. Gould is considered as An Important Scientist. Journalists regard him as "Mr. Evolution." He's a Harvard professor who gives funny talks that include cartoons, jokes, baseball stories, and a winking dismissal of those "stuffy scientists who are short-sighted, but we know better." Gould does a good show.
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Stephen Jay Gould was ... the author of The Mismeasure of Man (1981), a history and skeptical inquiry of psychometrics and intelligence testing. Gould investigated nineteenth century craniometry, as well as modern-day psychological testing, and claimed that they developed from an unfounded faith in biological determinism. It was reprinted in 1996 with the addition of a new foreword, plus a review and critique of The Bell Curve.
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