Stephen Jay Gould's writing remains the modern standard by which popular science writing is judged. Ever since the late 1970s up until till his death in 2002, his monthly essay inNatural Historyand his full-length books bridged the yawning gap between science and wider culture.

In this fascinating new collection of essays fromNatural History,Gould applied biographical perspectives to the illumination of key scientific concepts and their history, ranging from the origins of palaeontology to modern eugenics and genetic engineering. The essays brilliantly illuminate and elucidate the puzzles and paradoxes great and small that have fuelled the enterprise of science and opened our eyes to a world of unexpected wonders.

Stephen Jay Gould was the Alexander Agassiz Professor of Zoology and Professor of Geology at Harvard University, and the Vincent Astor Visiting Professor of Biology at New York University. During his illustrious career, his publications includedEver Since Darwin, Eight Little Piggies, Life's Grandeur, Questioning the Millenium, Leonardo's Mountain of Clams and the Diet of Worms, Bully for BrontosaurusandWonderful Life. Wonderful Lifewon the Science Book Prize for 1991. Stephen Jay Gould died in 2002, aged 60.

'Gould's astonishing success as a populariser of science is the result of his writing ability and his massive learning' - Literary Review