Transcript Stephen Jay Gould

Stephen Jay Gould
1941-2002
American paleontologist, evolutionary biologist,
historian of science
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Stephen_Jay_Gould
http://www.law.umkc.edu/faculty/projects/ftrials/conl
aw/gouldsj.html
Education
• Undergraduate at Antioch
• Studied at the University of Leeds, in
England
• Completed his graduate work at Columbia
• Immediately hired by Harvard University
Career
• Professor of geology and curator of Invertebrate
Paleontology at harvard’s museum of
comparative zoology
• Awarded the title of professor of zoology
• Awarded fellowship into the American
Association for the Advancement of Science
• Served as president of the paleontological
society (1985-1986) and the society for the study
of evolution (1990-1991)
• Elected into the body of the National Academy of
Sciences
Gould As a Public Figure
• Wrote popular science essays in ‘Natural
History’ magazine
• essays were reprinted in collected volumes,
such as The Panda's Thumb and The
Flamingo's Smile
• books such as The Mismeasure of Man
Wonderful Life and Full House
• passionate advocate of evolutionary theory and
wrote prolifically on the subject
Gould As a Public Figure
• recurring theme in his writings is the history and
development of evolutionary, and preevolutionary, thinking
• an enthusiastic baseball fan and made frequent
references to the sport
• proud Darwinist
Gould As a Public Figure
• spent much of his time fighting against
creationism(and the related constructs such as
Intelligent Design), including providing expert
testimony against creationism in the McLean vs
Arkansas, and what he regarded as other forms
of pseudoscience.
• Once voiced a cartoon version of himself on an
episode of the animated television program, The
Simpsons
Personal Life
• Born and raised in Queens in New York City
• Father Leonard was a court stenographer, and
his mother Eleanor an artist
• When five years old his father took him to the
"Hall of Dinosaurs" in the American Museum of
Natural History, where he first met
Tyrannesaurus rex. "I had no idea there were
such things—I was awestruck," Gould once
recalled. It was in that moment that he decided
he would become a paleontologist.
Personal Life
• Raised in a Jewish home but preferred to be
called an agnostic
• twice married; to Deborah Lee in 1965 which
ended in divorce, and to artist Rhonda Roland
Shearer in 1995
• two children, Jesse and Ethan, by his first
marriage
Gould As a Scientist
• Most closely identified with his theory of
“punctuated equilibrium,” first formulated in
1972.
• Punctuated equilibrium holds that evolution
occurred primarily in relatively rapid periods of
speciation rather than taking place in slow,
gradual transformations through the process of
natural selection.
• Believed that most species remain largely stable
over long periods of time before some
cataclysmic event sets rapid change in motion.
• Once controversial theory has become the
consensus view of paleontologists based on
fossil record.
Gould As a Scientist
• Distinguished between evolution, which he
described as “a fact,” and the theory of
evolution, which “is a theory.
• Empirical evidence for evolution easily met that
high standard, he believed, despite the
conceivability that new evidence could arise to
raise doubts.
Gould As a Scientist
• Made three general arguments for evolution.
First, he pointed to the undeniable evidence
of evolution within species, such as the
evolving of anti-biotic resistant strains of
bacteria.
Second, Gould argued from the
imperfections that appear in so many
species. An engineer, starting from scratch,
could design better limbs in each than legs of
rat, wings of birds, fins of fish and hands of
human
Gould As a Scientist
Finally, Gould found compelling evidence for
evolution in the fossil record of transitional
species. Gould pointed to examples of
fossils that demonstrated the route from one
species to another.
Controversies
• Expressed frustration that creationist critics
frequently cited his attempts to refine aspects of
Darwin’s theory of natural selection as evidence
that scientists seriously questioned the
underlying “fact” of evolution, not just its
mechanisms
• Man’s presence on earth, in Gould’s view, is an
incredibly improbable event, not the realized
vision of an intelligent designer. Without just the
right events wiping out just the right species at
just the right times, none of us would be here
Controversies
• Claimed creationism is “nonscientific” and thus
has no place in a science classroom.
• Counts among his proudest achievements his
part in the legal battle to keep creationism out of
public schools
• He appeared as anexpert witnesses in a lawsuit
challenging the constitutionality of that state’s
new “balanced treatment” law
• The law, backed by fundamentalists, required
teachers who covered evolution in their biology
classes to also discuss the creationist critique of
evolution and the evidence for “intelligent
design.”
Controversies
• At the trial, Gould testified creationists distorted both
geological evidence and scientific studies on fossil
evidence of evolutionary transformation
• Wrote of one high school teacher, asked what he
would do if the law was upheld, “looked up and said,
in his calm and dignified voice: It would be my
tendency not to comply. I am not a revolutionary or
a martyr, but I have a responsibility to my students,
and I cannot forego them.”
• Recalling the incident, Gould added a benediction:
“God bless the teachers of this world.”
Controversies
• Believed science education was in a sorry state
after the Scopes trial in Tennessee and the trial
in Arkansas
• No improvement came about, he argued, until
the success of the Russian Sputnick in 1957
finally roused Americans to see the dangers of a
second-rate science curriculum.
• Argued that a “strong consensus accepted for
decades by leading scientific and religious
thinkers alike” saw no conflict between evolution
and religion
Controversies
• In 1999 book, Rock of Ages: Science and
Religion in the Fullness of Life, he strenuously
contended that science and religion occupied
separate non-overlapping domains and if each
stuck to their appropriate missions, no difficulties
between the two could ever arise
•
Religion and science can, each in their own
way, “enrich our practical and ethical lives.” Just
as science is of no help in answering the
question of how we ought to live, Gould insisted,
religion tells us nothing about the laws of nature.
Controversies
• In 1999 book, Rock of Ages: Science and
Religion in the Fullness of Life, he strenuously
contended that science and religion occupied
separate non-overlapping domains and if each
stuck to their appropriate missions, no difficulties
between the two could ever arise
•
Religion and science can, each in their own
way, “enrich our practical and ethical lives.” Just
as science is of no help in answering the
question of how we ought to live, Gould insisted,
religion tells us nothing about the laws of nature.
Life Challenges
• Diagnosed with abdominal mesothelioma in
1982
• Later published a column in Discover titled”The
Median Isn’t the Message” in which he
discusses his discovery that
mesotheliomapatients had only a median
lifespan of eight months after diagnosis
• Described the research he uncovered behind
this number, and his relief upon the realization
that statistics are not prophecy
• After his diagnosis and receiving an
experimental treatment, Gould continued to live
for nearly twenty years
Life Challenges
• It was during his bout with abdominal
mesothelioma that became a user of marajaunia
to alleviate the nausea associated with his
cancer treatments
• According to Gould, his use of the illegal drug
had the "most important effect" on his eventual
cure
• His personal success with the substance led him
to become a medical marijuana advocate later in
his life
Steven Jay Gould died from a metastatic
adenocarcinoma of the lung (i.e.lung cancer
which was unrelated to his abdominal
mesothelioma) at his home in New York on May
20, 2002.