Volume 28, Number 2 · February 19, 1981
Back to Evolution
By P.B. Medawar
The Panda's Thumb: More Reflections in Natural History
by Stephen Jay Gould
Norton, 343 pp., $12.95
The Evolutionary Synthesis: Perspectives on the Unification of Biology
edited by Ernst Mayr, edited by William Provine
Harvard University Press, 487 pp., $25.00
When I reviewed Stephen Jay Gould's admirable Ever Since Darwin a few years ago, I expressed the hope that he would not lay his pen aside for too long. I need not have worried, for Gould is a natural writer: he has something to say and the inclination and skill with which to say it. His present collection is a series of essays that would give special pleasure to scientists, but they are sufficiently relaxed to be read with enjoyment by laymen too. A casual reader flipping through his pages may wonder what Mickey Mouse is doing in chapter nine ('A Biological Homage to Mickey Mouse'). Mickey is here to illustrate the characteristics thought by Konrad Lorenz to be responsible for the specially endearing characteristics of babyhood: 'a relatively large head, predominance of the brain capsule, large and low-lying eyes, bulging cheek region, short and thick extremities, a springy elastic consistency, and clumsy movements.'
Review, 3874 words
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