Leonardo's Mountain of Clams and the Diet of Worms: Essays on Natural History | 
| Author: Stephen Jay Gould
Publisher: Harmony
Category: Book
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Rating:  14 reviews
Sales Rank: 990806
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Media: Hardcover
Edition: 1st
Number Of Items: 1
Pages: 416
ASIN: B00013AX7G
Publication Date: October 1998
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| Editorial Reviews:
Amazon.com Review
One of this century's most thoughtful and prolific naturalists, Harvard professor Stephen Jay Gould looks at the human twists on science in his eighth series of essays taken from Natural History magazine. As only he can, Gould finds questions where others have never looked, and answers where others have been blinded--by their professional rivalries, by their unacknowledged privilege in society, by the dominant world-view at their particular juncture in history. "All great science," he says in the title essay, "indeed all fruitful thinking, must occur in a social and intellectual context--and contexts are just as likely to promote insight as to constrain thought." Gould's gift is being able to identify context, and see patterns in diverse fields or people or moments in history in a way that Darwin saw patterns in living species. This book is less about clams, worms, and Leonardo than about some evolutionary dead ends in human intellectual history. It's not an easy read. Those who are already Gould fans will find more tantalizing tidbits--no, thick stew--from this fruitful author. Those first-timers drawn by an intriguing title will scratch, frown, fall asleep, swear, and generally want to give up. But don't! Gould is one of those authors that takes some getting used to. With a little patience, his extravagant prose will edify rather than trip you, and his digressions will delight rather than distract. --Lauran Cole Warner
Product Description
This collection of essays from Stephen Jay Gould contains writing on subjects ranging from Leonardo da Vinci and Martin Luther, to fossils and the history of science.
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| Customer Reviews: Read 9 more reviews...
Stephen Jay Gould at his best May 23, 2008
Stephen Jay Gould had a gift for raising popular science writing to the level of literature. He is by turns profound, humorous and insightful. If you have never read any of his essays, you have missed the fun of a brilliant scientist writing engagingly about what he loves most.
Mountains, oh mountains, of things November 20, 2007
Once more, with feeling! Damned if Dr. Gould didn't do it again, or, more accurately, kept right on doing it. In this eighth collection of his monthly essays from Natural History magazine, Stephen Jay Gould continued his exploration of how science works (and doesn't). His reading and comprehension of history, both natural and social, produce delicious juxtaposition, insight and humor. Month after month in what became the longest running science commentary series ever to see print. Gould is adept at finding the particular instance which illustrates the general, and discerning errors of presupposition which stymie or paradoxically further scientific inquiry. In one of the title essays of this collection, for example, he demonstrates that Leonardo Da Vinci's motive for analysis of fossil clams -- a study which appears in retrospect to be marvelously modern and ahead of his time -- was offered in defense of an extremely antiquated and fallacious view of the earth as a living body. In other words, Leonardo got the right answer for the wrong reason, and though he knew his view of the earth was flawed, he never got beyond his backward bias. So, while we tend to view Da Vinci as a prescient wizard, he was perhaps more of an obsessed antiquarian, albeit a brilliant one. Great stuff in here about dodoes and Irish elk, neanderthals and missing links, princes and principles, with the arts, artists and religious texts thrown in for good measure. As I have said before ( see reviews of BULLY FOR BRONTOSAURUS, W.W. Norton & Company, 1991, and QUESTIONING THE MILLENNIUM, Harmony Books, 1997), Gould was one of our greatest modern essayists.
Essays illuminate intellectual effort, however misguided July 31, 2007
Gould's eighth collection of essays from his long-running feature in "Natural History" magazine explores the human history of scientific discovery; the use of observation to bolster preconceived notions and theories, and mistaken, sometimes humorous interpretations of fact.
Gould organizes the book in six broad categories: "Art and Science," "Biographies In Evolution," "Human Prehistory," "Of History and Toleration," "Evolutionary Facts and Theories," and "Different Perceptions of Common Truths."
With his customary eloquence and classic organization, Gould opens each essay with an intriguing anecdote leading to a brief discussion of his subject, then a clear statement of his intent. In the opening piece on Leonardo da Vinci's paleontology (the book's best and the one Gould himself admits to being "most proud of") Gould acknowledges the "truly prescient character" of Leonardo's observation. He then raises "two questions that expose the early-sixteenth-century context of Leonardo's inquiry: first, `What alternative account of fossils was Leonardo trying to disprove by making his observations?' and, second, "What theory of the earth was Leonardo trying to support with his findings?"
Leonardo's startlingly modern observations were employed forcefully to disprove that Noah's flood was the cause of fossil distribution or that fossils were some mystical outgrowth of rock itself. Leonardo's theory, shored up by his accurate observation, argued that the earth was a macrocosm of which man was a microcosm: "as man has within himself bones as a stay and framework for the flesh, so the world has the rocks which are the supports of the earth." Painstakingly, Leonardo proved his quaintly elaborate analogy with a wealth of breathtakingly accurate fossil detail.
This fascinating contrast of fact and human interpretation joyfully engages the reader in Gould's humanist views. While many of these myths have become famous for revealing cultural prejudice - women are inherently non-scientific, the best cave paintings must necessarily be the most modern, the dodo was an inferior evolutionary design - Gould's approach celebrates the vigorousness of human intellect in misguided pursuit.
Gould, who was evolutionary biologist and professor of zoology and geology at Harvard, makes his arguments from many sources, educating the reader on lesser known scientists and theories and revisiting favorites such as Darwin and the persisting misconceptions about the theory of evolution.
His elegant, stately prose conveys his own fascination and amusement and celebrates intellectual accomplishment, however mistaken.
Leonardo's Mountain of Clams and The Diet of Worms February 24, 2002
5 out of 7 found this review helpful
As Stephen Jay Gould's writes another book of thought provoking essays, here he toys with us with the title to this book.The title is about two seperate essays and they are well written. Understanding nature itself is what Gould is doing here... making a point in his customary brillance. There are short biographies, puzzles and paradoxes, all the time Gould is leading us through his thought prossess and reasoning. This is a very good collection of essays and well worth the time to read. Read and enjoy.
A basket of jewels August 30, 2000
11 out of 12 found this review helpful
Readers of Gould's other collections of science essays will be delighted with most of the material he presents here. With his usual scope and fine prose, he presents us with carefully researched and captivating subjects. All his essays are stimulating exercises in challenging traditional ways of thinking on a wide spectrum of subjects. The opening essay on Leonardo da Vinci provides a picture of a thinker challenged by mysterious evidence, expertly addressed. Da Vinci displays more humanity here than revealed by viewing his works. Fossil seashells at mountain peaks were puzzled over for centuries. Leonardo's vivid analysis might have enhanced scientific inquiry greatly if his ideas had not ran counter to church dogmas. The remaining essays span the usual gamut of resurrecting the reputations of scientists now often lost to view. While restoring some scientists in our estimation, he manages to erode that of others just a bit. Huxley, having been knocked off a high pedestal by an earlier essay of Gould's is subtly chided here once more for racist opinions. Richard Owen, who used some truly underhanded tactics in responding to Darwin's theory of Natural Selection, is given more leniency. Racism is a durable commodity, as Gould himself readily admits in describing his own feelings about taxing pedal-powered vehicles in Africa. It behooves him to grant Huxley a bit of leeway. Huxley, 'Darwin's Bulldog' in his unqualified support for natural selection, must necessarily be besmirched a bit in keeping with Gould's own efforts in evolutionary revisionism. Having addressed NOMA in comments about Gould's bizarre work ROCKS OF AGES, dwelling on the essay here would be inappropriate. Suffice to say, the concept verges on the irrational, a rare circumstance in Gould's otherwise fine collection. Far more impressive are the two essays, As the Worm Turns and Triumph of the Root-heads are among his best work. Every new discovery in biology raises our consciousness of our place in Nature. The description of the bizarre parasites inhabiting the body's of crabs is a superb challenge to rigid thinking about evolution's methods. We're frequently reminded that evolution never works 'backwards', but this essay confirms again how unpredictable life can be in adapting to new environments. Keep this book where the children can reach it. It will provide hours of delightful reading - not just one reading, but many.
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