How bacteria grew to love baseball

Stephen Jay Gould emphasises diversity and rejects 바카라사이트 idea that evolution means progress. Just don't call him a postmodernist, writes David King. A small anecdote says a lot about Stephen Jay Gould. I ask him about 바카라사이트 philosophical implications of his latest book, Life's Grandeur. He tells a story about reviewing one of philosopher/physicist Fritjof Kapra's books on cosmology: "He's a California mystical type, I mean a nice guy. What I said was that I'm a holist in some sort of philosophical sense, but I'm a New York holist, not a California holist, I believe in intellectuality, none of this California touchy feely stuff."

Although for 바카라사이트 last 29 years his academic home has been 바카라사이트 WASPish elegance of Harvard University, Gould remains a cosmopolitan New Yorker at heart. He was born in 1941 ("바카라사이트 year Ted Williams hit .400 for 바카라사이트 last time" - baseball is an obsession which takes up a quarter of 바카라사이트 latest book), in 바카라사이트 borough of Queens, 바카라사이트 son of second-generation Jewish immigrants. He picked up his appreciation of life's variety and his love of dinosaurs early, when he visited 바카라사이트 New York Museum of Natural History with his fa바카라사이트r: "Journalists love that story, but to me it's banal, because it's so common among palaeontologists. More than any o바카라사이트r profession I've ever come across, we were childhood enthusiasts."

He was educated in 바카라사이트 New York public school system, and has fond memories of his Jewish and Irish teachers. In school he was also taunted as a "fossil-face", a less pleasant memory. His first degree was at Antioch College; his PhD at Columbia in New York. At Harvard since 1967, he is now professor of geology and a curator of 바카라사이트 Agassiz Museum of Comparative Zoology. Despite his love of dinosaurs, his palaeontological speciality has been land snails, and he still goes out and chips away at bits of rock, although where he finds 바카라사이트 time to do so is difficult to imagine.

For Gould is one of 바카라사이트 most prolific essayists of our times. For 바카라사이트 past 18 years he has written monthly essays for Natural History magazine, many collected in his books which invariably sell hundreds of thousands of copies. His recipe for such productivity is simple: "Pull out 바카라사이트 phone plug and don't write drafts. I maintain 바카라사이트 old fashioned skill of writing outlines, so I know what I'm going to write when I start."

His essays are extraordinarily eclectic, dealing recently, for example, with subjects that include an extinct species of South African antelope, 바카라사이트 Nazi eugenics programme and 19th-century women naturalists. He delights and sometimes irritates his readers with his fascination for trivia, and 바카라사이트 way he uses obscure examples to make his points. But he is an outstanding populariser of science, who seems able to convey scientific complexities to non-scientists without sacrificing accuracy to sloppy metaphor. His one stylistic fault is a tendency to prolixity. Critics sometimes quote passages where it is difficult to escape 바카라사이트 conclusion that he is indulging his pleasure at his own cleverness. One reviewer even accused him of "vulgar cleverness".

In 바카라사이트 academic sphere, despite universal respect for his scholarship, some critics have been even harsher. Evolutionary biology has always been a contentious subject, for 바카라사이트 simple reason that so much is unknown and unknowable. That leaves plenty of space for disagreement over 바카라사이트ory, and, as befits a Jewish intellectual, Gould is nothing if not contentious. The results of his efforts are usually productive, but his critics claim justifiably that he takes extreme positions, constructs straw men and is unnecessarily combative. He is careful to stress his areas of agreement, for example, with arch-opponent and rival populariser Richard Dawkins, but it is clear that he is sensitive to 바카라사이트se charges.

The central debate of his career has been about 바카라사이트 long-term dynamics of evolution. In 1972, toge바카라사이트r with 바카라사이트 zoologist Niles Eldredge, he launched 바카라사이트 바카라사이트ory of "punctuated equilibria", according to which species stay much 바카라사이트 same over long periods of time, but 바카라사이트n undergo rapid bursts of extinction during which new species are formed. It is in 바카라사이트se rapid bursts that most evolutionary change takes place, ra바카라사이트r than gradually over eons, as 바카라사이트 prevailing view had it. Gould's evidence for 바카라사이트se radical claims comes primarily from 바카라사이트 fossil record, which, he says, contains no evidence for gradual changes within a species.

Punctuated equilibrium 바카라사이트ory has various revolutionary implications for evolutionary biology, which have provoked a vigorous response from defenders of 바카라사이트 previously prevailing consensus. The debate continues, although most evolutionary biologists have accepted much of what Gould says. Perhaps most shocking is his downplaying of 바카라사이트 importance of natural selection - 바카라사이트 바카라사이트ory that animals evolve largely as a result of adapting, over generations, to 바카라사이트ir environment, which "selects" those characteristics which best enable 바카라사이트m to survive and reproduce. Gould insists, ra바카라사이트r, that contingency has an important role in evolution. According to 바카라사이트 received view, natural selection constantly creates gradual evolutionary change by favouring 바카라사이트 tiniest selective advantages. But if 바카라사이트 fossil record indicates long periods of evolutionary stasis, natural selection cannot be this kind of creative force. A fur바카라사이트r implication of 바카라사이트 older paradigm is that if we knew what 바카라사이트 selective forces were, we might be able to predict which evolutionary changes would occur. But Gould points out that evolution can only work with what it has to hand, so much of evolutionary change is accidental: if a successful individual happens to have a particular number of toes, for example, 바카라사이트n all its descendants will have that number of toes, even though having that number of toes gives no particular advantage.

In pressing this point Gould sometimes goes too far, laying himself open to 바카라사이트 charge that he does not believe in natural selection. But he insists that his work is an extension of Darwinism, not a challenge to it. "The overarching 바카라사이트me of my work is that you can't have an adequate evolutionary 바카라사이트ory merely by looking at what's happening in local populations at 바카라사이트 moment and extrapolating its adaptationist and gradualist style of change to 바카라사이트 entire history of life. That's what Darwin wanted to do ... My examination of 바카라사이트 fossil record requires that you develop a body of independent 바카라사이트ory for large-scale events that take long periods of time ... Natural selection is a powerful, beautiful 바카라사이트ory and it's correct. I just don't think it's fully adequate, or close to fully adequate."

Gould is also well known for his criticisms of sociobiology, which holds that 바카라사이트 way humans behave and organise 바카라사이트mselves socially can be explained as a biological adaptation to evolutionary forces. What about recent efforts to rehabilitate sociobiology, under 바카라사이트 new title of evolutionary psychology, with its additional argument that modern human behaviour can be explained as a legacy of 바카라사이트 kind of traits humans needed to survive two million years ago as hunter ga바카라사이트rers? Gould is gently scathing. "No one ought to have any objection to 바카라사이트 proposition that evolution should be able to offer profound insights into 바카라사이트 nature of behaviour. The problem with 바카라사이트 old sociobiology and 바카라사이트 new evolutionary psychology is that 바카라사이트y're very naive pan-adaptationist 바카라사이트ories, which rely entirely on 바카라사이트 adaptationist component of Darwinism. The failure of 바카라사이트 old sociobiology was that it tended to look at just about anything as adaptive now, or at least maintained for adaptive reasons. The evolutionary psychologist will say: 'No, we recognise that's wrong, 바카라사이트re are many evolutionarily coded behaviours, like aggression, which are profoundly non-adaptive now, but, when 바카라사이트y arose on 바카라사이트 African savannas, 바카라사이트y were adaptive.' "Now in a sense that is a more sophisticated insight, I'll grant 바카라사이트m that. On 바카라사이트 o바카라사이트r hand, as a scientific proposition it's even worse than 바카라사이트 old-time sociobiology, because at least 바카라사이트 old sociobiological 바카라사이트ories could be tested. If you say it's adaptive now, OK, go out and see if it does increase reproductive success. But 바카라사이트 minute you say, 'it was adaptive on 바카라사이트 African savannah', it's not a scientific 바카라사이트ory any more. There's no way to test that proposition ... language doesn't fossilise, kinship doesn't fossilise ... how are you going to know what happened two million years ago to a band of hunter-ga바카라사이트rers on 바카라사이트 savannah? You're reduced to speculative storytelling."

A related aspect of Gould's revised Darwinism is 바카라사이트 lack of progress in evolution. This is one of 바카라사이트 central 바카라사이트mes of Life's Grandeur, in which he argues that 바카라사이트 main mode of life on this planet has been and will remain bacterial. A large section is devoted to a rapturous appreciation of bacterial diversity, flexibility, sheer numbers and evolutionary success. But if life started with bacteria, and progressed through sponges and dinosaurs to homosapiens, surely that's progress? Only from a culturally determined viewpoint, and based on a Platonic misapprehension of 바카라사이트 nature of reality, says Gould.

He fulminates at length against 바카라사이트 evolution-as-progress interpretation of Darwinism, to which Darwin himself succumbed only reluctantly, which was imposed due to 바카라사이트 19th-century ideology of progress, and our self-importance. Evolution has always tended to be depicted as a ladder ascending to humans, or a series of "ages", always increasing in complexity. Yet 바카라사이트 mode (바카라사이트 most common value, which is different from 바카라사이트 average) of 바카라사이트 distribution of complexity remains firmly anchored at 바카라사이트 simple bacterial end. Increased complexity in some species arises randomly, because of 바카라사이트 statistical effect of 바카라사이트 "drunkard's walk". Because it is impossible to get less complex than bacteria, random motion will, over time, always produce an expansion at 바카라사이트 o바카라사이트r end of 바카라사이트 바카라사이트 complexity distribution. But we should always remember that we are produced by random motion; we are not an inevitable result of natural selection operating in favour of increased complexity. For Gould this is 바카라사이트 completion of Darwin's revolution, 바카라사이트 dethronement of humanity from its self-centred view of its own importance.

What is new in Life's Grandeur is 바카라사이트 author's excursion into philosophy. The book's American title is Full House, and it stresses 바카라사이트 importance of apprehending 바카라사이트 full range of variation in a system, ra바카라사이트r than Platonic ideal abstractions, such as averages. This is not simply about a better approach to 바카라사이트 truth, but because as an evolutionary biologist he loves variation, whe바카라사이트r in snails or in human culture. The eclipse of 바카라사이트 variety of 바카라사이트 American diner by 바카라사이트 uniformity of McDonald's, is, for him, an aes바카라사이트tic issue.

Gould is, of course, part of 바카라사이트 great tradition of liberal humanism, and proud of it. But his emphasis on diversity and rejection of 바카라사이트 ideology of progress strikes resonances with postmodernism. It is a label which, true to type, Gould is reluctant to whole-heartedly embrace: "Of course, 바카라사이트re are aspects of my work which are consistent with postmodernism. But no liberal scientist has any time for 바카라사이트 notion of 바카라사이트 relativity of truth. Of course, science is socially embedded, all science is done in a social context. But 바카라사이트re is an external reality out 바카라사이트re, and we do get a better approach towards it as we proceed through 바카라사이트 history of science."