Gould Stephen Jay Boeken

Op de achterflap: "Vanaf de eerste eencellige organismen naar de mens in al zijn wonderbaarlijke en nog goeddeels onbegrepen complexiteit, is dat niet onmiskenbaar een enorme ontwikkeling ten goede, een fundamentele kwaliteitsverbetering? In dit radicale maar altijd relativerende boek toont Stephen Jay Gould hoe deze opvatting - hoe vleiend hij ook is - berust op denkfouten. Niet vooruitgang is het wezen van evolutie, maar variatie en selectie, op zichzelf willekeurig en richtingloos. Verbetering is altijd plaatselijk en tijdelijk. Als geen ander weet Gould zijn persoonlijke ervaring en belangstelling te gebruiken om zijn meer theoretische bespiegelingen reliëf te geven. Met een groot gevoel voor humor verbindt hij zijn passie voor wetenschap aan zijn passie voor honkbal, dat hij als model gebruikt voor een hele traditie in het wetenschappelijk redeneren. Nadat Darwin de mens ontmaskerde als dier en Freud ons de heerschappij van onze eigen geest ontnam, breekt Gould nu een laatste voetstuk af: dat van de menselijke soort als stralend hoogtepunt in de evolutie. Stephen Jay Gould werd in Nederland vooral bekend door zijn optreden in 'Een schitterend ongeluk' van Wim Kayzer. Van hem verschenen bij Contact 'Wonderlijk leven' en 'De mens gemeten'."

World-renowned primatologist, conservationist, and humanitarian Dr. Jane Goodall’s account of her life among the wild chimpanzees of Gombe is one of the most enthralling stories of animal behavior ever written. Her adventure began when the famous anthropologist Dr. Louis Leakey suggested that a long-term study of chimpanzees in the wild might shed light on the behavior of our closest living relatives. Accompanied by only her mother and her African assistants, she set up camp in the remote Gombe Stream Chimpanzee Reserve in Tanzania. For months the project seemed hopeless; out in the forest from dawn until dark, she had but fleeting glimpses of frightened animals. But gradually she won their trust and was able to record previously unknown behavior, such as the use—and even the making— of tools, until then believed to be an exclusive skill of man. As she came to know the chimps as individuals, she began to understand their complicated social hierarchy and observed many extraordinary behaviors, which have forever changed our understanding of the profound connection between humans and chimpanzees. In the Shadow of Man is “one of the Western world’s great scientific achievements” (Stephen Jay Gould) and a vivid, essential journey of discovery for each new generation of readers.

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.

Contains thirty of the author's essays from monthly columns in Natural History Magazine.

There aren't many scientists famous enough in their lifetime to be canonized by the US Congress as one of America's 'living legends'. It is still more unlikely that the title should have been conferred on a man regarded by many in the US as a notorious ra

“Ontogeny recapitulates phylogeny” was Haeckel’s answer to 19th-century biology’s most vexing question: what is the relationship between individual development and the evolution of species and lineages? Gould documents the history of the idea of recapitulation from its first appearance among the pre-Socratics to its fall in the early 20th century.

The 31 essays in this collection share the theme of "quirkiness and meaning" and explore the idea that natural oddities - the snail that changes sex, the jellyfish that feeds upside down - are extraordinary for a vital reason: they have found their evolutionary niche.

This collection of essays from "Natural History" magazine illuminate and elucidate key scientific concepts and their history, ranging from the discovery of the new scourge of syphilis by Fracastoro in the 16th century to Freud's weird speculations about human phylogeny.

Basing his argument around the history of science's treatment of the fossils of the Burgess shale, the author presents a view of evolution as a non-progressive system, which saw a wide range of early designs for life winnowed down to the relatively few basic designs that exist today.

This seventh collection of Stephen Jay Gould's natural history essays covers subjects ranging from fossils to ship worms, starting with a solar eclipse in New York, and finishing with bus stops in Greece.