NEWS HEADLINES
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Iran students stage first anti-government protests since deadly crackdown
The student protesters honoured thousands of those killed when nationwide mass protests were put down last month. read more
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Killing of nationalist student leaves French far left in deep trouble as elections loom
Far-left militants are suspected of being behind Quentin Deranque's death and the party of Jean-Luc Mélenchon is being widely condemned. read more
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Nasa astronauts' moon mission delayed due to rocket issue
The mission to the far side of the Moon and back will be postponed after problems with were spotted with its rocket, a Nasa official said. read more
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Divers recover bodies of seven Chinese tourists from bottom of Lake Baikal
A Russian driver also died when their mini-bus plunged under the ice to the bottom of the lake in Siberia. read more
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Palestinian Authority in dire straits as Israel's hold on West Bank deepens
More than 30 years after its creation, there are increasing warnings that the PA is close to collapse. read more
ONTOGENY AND PHYLOGENY
STEPHEN JAY GOLD
BIOGRAPHY
Stephen Jay Gould was born and raised in the community of Bayside, a neighborhood of the northeastern section of Queens in New York City. His father Leonard was a court stenographer, and his mother Eleanor was an artist whose parents were Jewish immigrants living and working in the city’s Garment District.[6] When Gould was five years old his father took him to the Hall of Dinosaurs in the American Museum of Natural History, where he first encountered Tyrannosaurus rex. “I had no idea there were such things—I was awestruck,” Gould once recalled.[7] It was in that moment that he decided to become a paleontologist.
Raised in a secular Jewish home, Gould did not formally practice religion and preferred to be called an agnostic. Biologist Jerry Coyne, who had Gould on his thesis committee, described him as a “diehard atheist if there ever was one.
