NEWS HEADLINES
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Brutal heat cancels Fourth of July events, from DC to Philadelphia
More than 165 million people are enduring dangerous heat and humidity, with temperatures expected to stay at 38C (100F) for several days. 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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Large crowds gather in Tehran on first day of Ayatollah Khamenei's funeral
Ali Khamenei's body will lie in state in Tehran's Grand Mosalla until Monday, before travelling across Iran and Iraq. 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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Injury ends Williams' Wimbledon comeback
Serena Williams pulls out of her planned Wimbledon doubles appearance with older sister Venus because of a knee injury. read more
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 thingsāI 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.

