NEWS HEADLINES
-
First round of US-Iran talks ends with encouraging progress, mediators say
The US-Iran talks began on Sunday in Switzerland, after last week's agreement, which includes a commitment to reach a final deal within 60 days. read more
-
Trump-backed political outsider wins Colombia election, initial count shows
Abelardo de la Espriella appears to have narrowly defeated his rival Iván Cepeda, who says the preliminary count is "not yet official or binding". read more
-
Largest ever cocaine bust in Australia after police raid underground bunker
Police seized 2.7 tonnes of cocaine worth an estimated A$816m after searching a property in western Sydney. read more
-
Russian troop build-up threatens city seen as key to seizing Ukraine's Donbas
If Kostyantynivka falls, Russian forces would be able push towards Ukraine's last remaining strongholds in the east. read more
-
Alan Greenspan, architect of the modern American economy, dies aged 100
As chairman of the Federal Reserve, Alan Greenspan became the world's most high-profile banker. 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.
