Books by Stephen Jay Gould
“I was raised in the heyday of the IQ craze. My sixth grade teacher seated us around the room in IQ order and assigned all privileges on the basis of IQ. This book made me realise the effect it had on us and I saw that my work could play a role in bringing that era to a close.” Read more...
The best books on Mindset and Success
Carol Dweck, Psychologist
Ever Since Darwin
by Stephen Jay Gould
Like Dawkins, Gould is a master of the anecdote, using these small details to tell larger tales
The Flamingo's Smile
by Stephen Jay Gould
Gould would pick out examples and write these essays to champion a particular view of evolution and to try to critique other views.
“When I was approaching my life as a mature scientist, Stephen Jay Gould was the prime force in palaeontology. He was regarded almost as a demi-god. He’s written a number of good books. He writes extremely well, but the book that touched me most was this one, which actually became an international bestseller. Wonderful Life is about the Burgess Shale, which is a deposit of Cambrian age. The Cambrian is a division of geological time – the first major division bearing numerous fossils of animals we can easily recognise. The base of the Cambrian is now 542 million years old and it lasted for 50 million years or so, and this is when abundant marine life as we know it really got going. That is the first appearance as fossils of many of the ancestors of living things.” Read more...
The best books on Palaeontology
Richard Fortey, Biologist
Interviews where books by Stephen Jay Gould were recommended
The best books on Palaeontology, recommended by Richard Fortey
Palaeontologist Richard Fortey says it took tiny organisms two billion years of work to oxygenate the planet sufficiently for our kind of life, including trilobites, dinosaurs and ourselves, to evolve
The best books on The Strangeness of Life, recommended by Carl Zimmer
The science writer and award-winning blogger Carl Zimmer discusses the strangeness of life, from viruses to manipulative flatworms
The best books on Mindset and Success, recommended by Carol Dweck
If you’ve stepped inside a school recently, you’ve probably heard teachers talking about the importance of a ‘growth mindset.’ Here psychologist Carol Dweck, who pioneered research into this key concept, explains what it’s all about and recommends books—other than her own—that shed light on it.
The best books on Evolution, recommended by Jerry Coyne
Evolutionary biologist Jerry Coyne tells us why Darwin is still essential reading and sifts the vast amount of more recent writing on evolution for books that are both inspiring to scientists and accessible to general readers. He picks the best books on evolution.
The best books on Essentialism, recommended by Susan Gelman
Putting people and things into categories is something we all do. It’s a useful shortcut but reveals biases. And it plays a role in everything from ethnic violence to childhood development, as psychologist Susan Gelman explains.
