NEWS HEADLINES
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El Niño under way and threatens weather extremes, scientists say
An El Niño event has officially started, say US scientists, raising fears of extreme weather and higher temperatures. read more
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Deadly Sudan drone strike targets funeral procession
Rights groups accuse the RSF paramilitary group of killing civilians in el-Obeid, a city on the civil war's front line. read more
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US and Iran exchange strikes across Middle East for second day in a row
Iran says it responded to US strikes by targeting American assets in Kuwait, Jordan and Bahrain, which reported damage to its capital city overnight. read more
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Nigeria evacuates citizens from South Africa as anti-migrant sentiment rises
Nigeria is the latest African state to repatriate citizens following reports of xenophobic attacks. read more
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The furious dispute over what caused Air India flight 171 to crash
The final conclusions of the investigation have yet to be published, although more could become apparent in the coming days. 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.
