The Panda's Thumb; More Reflections in Natural History

Gould, Stephen Jay

ISBN 10: 0393013804 / ISBN 13: 9780393013801

Published by W.W. Norton & Company, Inc, New York, 1980

About this Item

About Near Fine in a Very Good jacket, clipped, toned at the edges and with a few small chips and tears. Quarter blue cloth, faded a shade at the spine. Square and firmly bound, gift inscription on the front endpaper, clean otherwise. Gould's work that examines evolution of the layperson, answering questions like "Were dinosaurs really dumber than lizards?" and "How does Mickey Mouse's evolution mirror our own?".

Seller Inventory # 10146

Bibliographic Details

• Title: The Panda's Thumb; More Reflections in Natural History
• Publisher: W.W. Norton & Company, Inc, New York
• Publication Date: 1980
• Language: English
• ISBN 10: 0393013804
• ISBN 13: 9780393013801
• Binding: Hardcover
• Edition: First Edition.
• Condition: Near Fine
• Dust Jacket Condition: Very Good

About this title

Synopsis

Gould, Stephen Jay. The Panda's Thumb - More Reflections in Natural History. First Edition. Toronto, George J. McLeod, 1980. 14.5cm x 21.5cm. 343 pages. Original Hardcover with original dustjacket in protective collector's mylar. Excellent condition with only very minor signs of external wear. Gould delights and instructs us, deepening and extending his examination of evolution, a centrepiece of modern science. Were dinosaurs really dumber than lizards? Why, after all, are roughly the same number of men and women born into the world? What led the famous Dr.Down to his theory of mongolism, and its racist residue? How does Mickey Mouse's evolution mirror our own? What do the panda's magical thumb and the sea turtle's perilous migration tell us about imperfections that prove the evolutionary rule? These questions lie on a continuum between timeless science and singular history and touch us all. Never have their sweet and bitter mysteries been explained with such wit, beauty and elegance. Includes the following chapters: Perfection and Imperfection: A Trilogy on a Panda's Thumb, Natural Selection and the Human Brain: Darwin vs Wallace, Darwin's Middle Road, A Biological Homage to Mickey Mouse, Piltdown Revisted, Our Greatest Evolutionary Step.

Review

Stephen Jay Gould is a serious and gifted interpreter of biological theory, of the history of ideas and of the cultural context of scientific discovery. . . . "The Panda's Thumb" is fresh and mind-stretching. Above all, it is exultant. So should its readers be. --H. Jack Geiger"

It is a wonder what Mr. Gould can do with the most unlikely phenomena: a tiny organism's use of the earth's magnetic field as a guide to food and comfort, for instance, or the panda's thumb--which isn't one...Science writing at its best.

Gould can do no wrong...As long as he writes, you cannot help but read--and enjoy.--Isaac Asimov