Il pollice del panda: riflessioni sulla storia naturale (1980)

> LE POUCE OU PANDA — LES GRANDES ÉNIGMES DE L'ÉVOLUTION Stephen Jay Gould (Grasset, 1982)
Se reporter au compte rendu de Alan BOUDREAU
In: (1983). Compte rendu de [Commentaires]. Nuit blanche, n° 8 (hiver 1983), p. 37.… ; (en ligne),
URL : https://id.erudit.org/iderudit/1673ac

Collected Essays:

Section 1: Perfections and Imperfections: A Trilogy on Panda's Thumb
The general point of these essays is that it's the obviously odd and approximate solutions that are the most convincing for the case of evolution,
rather than the impressive. Also, Darwin's enthusiasm for orchids makes sense considered this way, since the orchids' contrivances for consuming insects are all adaptations of the structures of normal flowers.

As with Ever Since Darwin, some of these essays have dated a bit over the years, and I don't always agree with what Gould says. But these short pieces do always make for a good read, and there are the typical gems here: Mickey Mouse's neoteny, the Piltdown hoax, the fate of South American marsupials, and "Nature's Odd Couples" stand out for me. ( )

More of his brilliant columns. ( )

a conglomeration of Gould’s articles and essays about various scientific troubles, anomalies, and paradigm shift resistance specifically aimed at creationist and other anti-science movements, if one can call such things movements. Many times, Gould speaks to the biased human minds that make up the scientific community and the sociological and cultural pressures operating within and upon it. it holds up remarkably well since its publication over 30 years ago.

from Haekel’s insistence on evolutionary recapitulation and Kirkpatrick's insistence that all rocks were made of fossils to Agassiz’s overt racism to the fall of gradualism and dinosaurs’ coldblooded nature, this book is a great panorama of the history of science. the picture it creates is an honest one even if it’s not very pleasant to our egos sometimes. but that’s what science is all about, i think. ( )