Word: goulds
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Renowned evolutionary biologist Stephen Jay Gould dies of cancer at his home in New York at age 60, a few days before a final exam for one of his classes...
DIED. STEPHEN JAY GOULD, 60, groundbreaking evolutionary biologist and award-winning author; of cancer; in New York City (see Eulogy...
Stephen Jay Gould reinvented science writing. Before him, we had the flowery exaltation of nature ("Far in the empty sky a solitary esophagus slept upon motionless wing," in Mark Twain's parody) and the skin-deep attempt to bring science to the masses (immune cells are little soldiers--no, they're locks and keys--except when they're garbage disposals). Gould's essays were something else: witty, respectful of his readers' intelligence, always finding a principle in a grain of sand and a law in a wildflower. That the essays were also a velvet glove for Gould's iron convictions...
...favorite of his essays was about Joe DiMaggio's 56-game hitting streak. Streaks in sports, Gould noted, should command our appreciation not because a player gets a hot hand or a magic rhythm--these are cognitive illusions--but because his level of skill increases the odds of a lucky run. All long-lived phenomena are "games of a gambler playing with a limited stake against a house with infinite resources... DiMaggio activated the greatest and most unattainable dream of all humanity, the hope and chimera of all sages and shamans: he cheated death, at least for a while." This...
...Stephen Jay Gould reinvented science writing. Before him we had the flowery exaltation of nature ("Far in the empty sky a solitary esophagus slept upon motionless wing," in Mark Twain's parody) and skin-deep attempts to bring science to the masses. Gould's essays were something else: witty, respectful of readers' intelligence, always finding a principle in a grain of sand and a law in a wildflower. That they were also a velvet glove for Gould's iron convictions drove many scientists crazy, but we all admired his explanatory gifts. My favorite essay was about Joe DiMaggio...