"We are here because one odd group of fishes had a peculiar fin anatomy that could transform into legs for terrestrial creatures; because the earth nev...












Obsolescence is a fate devoutly to be wished, lest science stagnate and die.
More Stephen Jay Gould quotes
"People, as curious primates, dote on concrete objects that can be seen and fondled. God dwells among the details, not in the realm of pure generality....
"Current utility and historical origin are different subjects.
"Our planet is not fragile at its own timescale and we, pitiful latecomers in the last microsecond of our planetary year, are stewards of nothing in th...
"This new consensus seemed so compelling that Ernst Mayr, the dean of modern Darwinians, opened the ashcan of history for a deposit of Geoffrey's ideas...
"Objectivity cannot be equated with mental blankness; rather, objectivity resides in recognizing your preferences and then subjecting them to especiall...
"I had learned that a dexterous, opposable thumb stood among the hallmarks of human success. We had maintained, even exaggerated, this important flexib...
"The idea of decimation as a lottery converts the new iconography of the Burgess Shale into a radical view about the pathways of life and the nature of...