STEPHEN JAY GOULD

For millennia the animals that populated the earth had four toes on each foot, or six. If evolution had taken a tiny shift - if our ancestors had inherited a couple of genes in a different form - our canonical number, based on our fingers and toes, might be eight instead of ten. This book deploys this, which is one of the oddities of history.

Sheds light on a dilemma that has plagued thinking people since the Renaissance. Instead of having to choose between science and religion, the author asks why do we not opt for the golden resolution that accords dignity and distinction to both? He also delves into the history of science with stories of figures such as Galileo and Darwin.

In this new collection of essays, Gould has once again applied biographical perspectives to the illumination of key scientific concepts and their history, ranging from the origins of palaeontology to modern eugenics and genetic engineering.

Encuadernación: Rústica Colección: Booket Ciencia

"His fourth volume of imaginative, witty essays...equals Gould's prize-winning The Panda's Thumb and The Mismeasure of Man".--Publisher's Weekly. Photographs.