This is volume 4 of the collected essays by the late Stephen Jay Gould. As before, it is the usual mixture of some rather esoteric ones that go a bit over my head and subjects I find more interesting. I had to skip the article on baseball however, being from the UK and unable to drum up any interest. The discussion of mass extinctions was interesting, given that these essays were written during the period when the theory that the dinosaurs (and many marine invertebrates) had been wiped out by an asteroid strike was beginning to gather sufficient evidence to be accepted. Some of the articles have no doubt been superseded by more recent scientific developments which is problematic when a reader such as myself doesn't know which have been affected. So all in all, I rate this at 3 stars. ( )

Gould's fourth essays volume, which includes some real crackers. The title essay is a great read, for example. As usual, though, some have aged better than others. ( )

essays on racial equality, evolution etc.

Another collection of Gould's essays on evolution, natural history, palentology, baseball, etc. I've enjoyed his essays since I first started reading them many years back and this one is just as good. It is an older collection so it was interesting to read about the new at the time theory of mas extinction by asteroid and also an essay on nuclear winter.

Just didn't do much for me. Maybe if I'd had more education in these fields. ( )