I Have Landed

Stephen Jay Gould

Harvard University Press, 2011 - Biography & Autobiography - 418 pages

As always in his popular writing, Gould conveys the ideas that science professionals exchange among themselves, minus only the technical jargon. In the title essay, he details his grandfather's journey from Hungary to America, and in a moving epilogue that has been hailed as a powerful testament, Gould writes about September 11.

Contents

• Preface: 1
• I Pausing in Continuity: 11
• Scientific Slouching Across a Misconceived Divide: 27
• III Darwinian Prequels and Fallout: 111
• IV Essays in the Paleontology of Ideas: 159
• Six Evolutionary Epitomes: 209
• VI The Meaning and Drawing of Evolution: 237
• VII Natural Worth: 333
• VIII Triumph and Tragedy on the Exact Centennialof I Have Landed September 11 2001: 385
• Illustration Credits: 403
• Index: 405

About the author

Born in New York City in 1941, Stephen Jay Gould received his B.A. from Antioch College in New York in 1963 and a Ph.D. in paleontology from Columbia University in 1967. Gould spent most of his career as a professor at Harvard University and curator of invertebrate paleontology at Harvard's Museum of Comparative Zoology. His research was mainly in the evolution and speciation of land snails. Gould was a leading proponent of the theory of punctuated equilibrium. This theory holds that few evolutionary changes occur among organisms over long periods of time, and then a brief period of rapid changes occurs before another long, stable period of equilibrium sets in. Gould also made significant contributions to the field of evolutionary developmental biology, most notably in his work, Ontogeny and Phylogeny. An outspoken advocate of the scientific outlook, Gould had been a vigorous defender of evolution against its creation-science opponents in popular magazines focusing on science. He wrote a column for Natural History and has produced a remarkable series of books that display the excitement of science for the layperson. Among his many awards and honors, Gould won the National Book Award and the National Book Critics Circle Award. His titles include; Ever Since Darwin, The Panda's Thumb, Hen's Teeth and Horse's Toes, Time's Arrow, Time's Cycle, Wonderful Life: The Burgess Shale and the Nature of History, The Structure of Evolutionary Theory and Full House: The Spread of Excellence from Plato to Darwin. Stephen Jay Gould died on May 20, 2002, following his second bout with cancer.

Bibliographic information

• Title: I Have Landed
• Author: Stephen Jay Gould
• Edition: illustrated
• Publisher: Harvard University Press, 2011
• ISBN: 0674061624, 9780674061620
• Length: 418 pages
• Subjects: Biography & Autobiography / Environmentalists & Naturalists; Biography & Autobiography / Science & Technology; Science / Chemistry / General; Science / Essays; Science / History; Science / Life Sciences / Evolution; Science / Life Sciences / General; Science / Natural History; Science / Paleontology; Science / Research & Methodology