The Panda's Thumb: More Reflections in Natural History

By:

Gould, Stephen Jay

Material type: Text

9780393300239
0393300234

Subject(s):

DDC classification:

575.0162 GOU

Contents:

Prologue -- [Part] 1 : Perfection and imperfection : a trilogy on a panda's thumb -- The panda's thumb -- Senseless signs of history -- Double trouble -- [Part] 2 : Darwiniana -- Natural selection and the human brain : Darwin vs. Wallace -- Darwin's middle road -- Death before birth, or a mite's nunc dimittis -- Shades of Lamarck -- Caring groups and selfish genes -- [Part] 3 : Human evolution -- A biological homage to Mickey Mouse -- Piltdown revisited -- Our greatest evolutionary step -- In the midst of life -- [Part] 4 : Science and politics of human differences -- Wide hats and narrow minds -- Women's brains -- Dr. Down's syndrome -- Flaws in a Victorian veil -- [Part] 5 : The pace of change -- The episodic nature of evolutionary change -- Return of the hopeful monster -- The Great Scablands debate -- A quahog is a quahog -- [Part] 6 : Early life -- An early start -- Crazy old Randolph Kirkpatrick -- Bathybius and Eozoon -- Might we fit inside a sponge's cell -- [Part] 7 : They were despised and rejected -- Were dinosaurs dumb? -- The telltale wishbone -- Nature's odd couples -- Sticking up for marsupials -- [Part] 8 : Size and time -- Our allotted lifetimes -- Natural attraction : bacteria, the birds and the bees -- Time's vastness.

Summary: 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.

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Holdings
Item type	Current library	Collection	Call number	Status	Date due	Barcode	Item holds
Reference Books	Main Library Reference	Reference	575.0162 GOU (Browse shelf(Opens below))	Available		006840

Total holds: 0

Included Bibliography & Index

Prologue --
[Part] 1 : Perfection and imperfection : a trilogy on a panda's thumb --
The panda's thumb --
Senseless signs of history --
Double trouble --
[Part] 2 : Darwiniana --
Natural selection and the human brain : Darwin vs. Wallace --
Darwin's middle road --
Death before birth, or a mite's nunc dimittis --
Shades of Lamarck --
Caring groups and selfish genes --
[Part] 3 : Human evolution --
A biological homage to Mickey Mouse --
Piltdown revisited --
Our greatest evolutionary step --
In the midst of life --
[Part] 4 : Science and politics of human differences --
Wide hats and narrow minds --
Women's brains --
Dr. Down's syndrome --
Flaws in a Victorian veil --
[Part] 5 : The pace of change --
The episodic nature of evolutionary change --
Return of the hopeful monster --
The Great Scablands debate --
A quahog is a quahog --
[Part] 6 : Early life --
An early start --
Crazy old Randolph Kirkpatrick --
Bathybius and Eozoon --
Might we fit inside a sponge's cell --
[Part] 7 : They were despised and rejected --
Were dinosaurs dumb? --
The telltale wishbone --
Nature's odd couples --
Sticking up for marsupials --
[Part] 8 : Size and time --
Our allotted lifetimes --
Natural attraction : bacteria, the birds and the bees --
Time's vastness.

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.

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