Dinosaur in a Haystack : Reflections in Natural History

from nmele

Although some of Gould's books were pleasurable reads for me, this collection of his essays was a little bit tedious for some reason. He is an engaging essayist, but I suspect that so many years after his untimely death, his style and the subjects he treats are a bit...well, dated. It doesn't see...

from vguy

Full of interest, though a bit scattered and with a touch of the manic. Amazed to discover on page 374 that I'd read it before - perhaps 10 years ago. The item that rang a bell was the 3 meanings of "Bug" ( beastie, computer glitch, listening device). Of the rest, not a phrase was familiar, thoug...

from BradKautz

Dinosaur in a Haystack is a collection of 34 essays by Harvard paleontologist Stephen Jay Gould. Each essay involves some aspect of natural history as it intersects with contemporary life. The essays were originally published in the journal Nature, and this volume joins several other previous col...

from AliceAnna

A Darwinian's delight. Although much of the reading was dry, there were certain compelling essays. I particularly enjoyed (if that's the right word) the sequence on eugenics and the essay on Poe's scientific writing (maybe, maybe not).

from dgbedoya

Stephen Jay Gould is one of the most important writers about evolution and the biological science in general. His style is attractive and is easy to read even if you are not a specialist on the topic. This book in particular is one of my favorites in my library and is also useful to teach my ecol...