NEWS HEADLINES
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US marks 250th birthday with fireworks, flyovers and extreme weather
US President Donald Trump's speech included some of his political agenda but also honoured war veterans and American history. read more
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Ukraine hits major oil terminal in Russia's St Petersburg
Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelensky says the target is key infrastructure "that generates revenue for Russia's war". read more
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Chinese underground church figure Jin Mingri freed from prison
The Zion Church founder's release comes after a direct plea to Xi Jinping from Donald Trump. read more
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Former chess champion Kramnik banned over cheating remarks
The former Russian world chess champion had accused other players, including the late Daniel Naroditsky, of cheating. read more
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Moment of destiny for France's Le Pen in verdict to decide her future in presidential race
Far-right leader Marine Le Pen is appealing against a verdict which found her guilty of misusing EU funds. 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.
