"A remarkable achievement by any measure.... [Gould] is a writer of great natural wit, and his sophistication and learning range far beyond...biology."--Chicago Tribune Ever Since Darwin, Stephen Jay Gould's first book, has sold more than a quarter of a million copies. Like all of Gould's succeeding collections, it brings the art of the scientific essay to unparalleled heights. Its genius? Gould's ability to use his knowledge of the world, including popular culture, to illuminate science. 15 illustrations.

Prologue p. 11
Darwin's Delay p. 21
Darwin's Sea Change, or Five Years at the Captain's Table p. 28
Darwin's Dilemma: The Odyssey of Evolution p. 34
Darwin's Untimely Burial p. 39
A Matter of Degree p. 49
Bushes and Ladders in Human Evolution p. 56
The Child as Man's Real Father p. 63
Human Babies as Embryos p. 70
The Misnamed, Mistreated, and Misunderstood Irish Elk p. 79
Organic Wisdom, or Why Should a Fly Eat Its Mother from Inside p. 91
Of Bamboos, Cicadas, and the Economy of Adam Smith p. 97
The Problem of Perfection, or How Can a Clam Mount a Fish on Its Rear End? p. 103
The Pentagon of Life p. 113
An Unsung Single-Celled Hero p. 119
Is the Cambrian Explosion a Sigmoid Fraud? p. 126
The Great Dying p. 134
The Reverend Thomas' Dirty Little Planet p. 141
Uniformity and Catastrophe p. 147
Velikovsky in Collision p. 153
The Validation of Continental Drift p. 160
Size and Shape p. 171
Sizing Up Human Intelligence p. 179
History of the Vertebrate Brain p. 186
Planetary Sizes and Surfaces p. 192
On Heroes and Fools in Science p. 201
Posture Maketh the Man p. 207
Racism and Recapitulation p. 214
The Criminal as Nature's Mistake, or the Ape in Some of Us p. 222
Why We Should Not Name Human Races- a Biological View p. 231
The Nonscience of Human Nature p. 237
Racist Arguments and Iq p. 243
Biological Potentiality Vs. Biological Determinism p. 251
So Cleverly Kind an Animal p. 260
Epilogue p. 268
Bibliography p. 272
Index p. 277