Happy Birthday, Stephen Jay Gould, Paleontologist and Science Writer

Born in Queens, New York on September 10, 1941 to a court stenographer and an artist, Stephen Jay Gould’s interest in paleontology began when he was five years old, during a trip to New York City’s Museum of Natural History with his father. His passion for the subject deepened over the years, although his biography on the Stanford Presidential Lectures Web site says that it faced tough competition from his obsession with the Yankees. Gould moved away from New York City (and the Yanks) to get his undergraduate degree in Geology at Antioch College in Ohio. Gould became famous for his broad and often abstract theories; some of his training in that kind of thinking began at Antioch, where writing was a vital component of the curriculum. Famous for drawing on literary, cultural and historical themes in his scientific papers, Gould’s education prepared him to be a renaissance man of science, the ideal platform for his wide-ranging interests.

Gould essentially began his professional career at the very same institution that inspired his path. While his PhD is officially from Columbia, the program he entered was a joint one between Columbia and the American Museum of Natural History. During this time, he formed a partnership with Niles Eldredge, a fellow paleontologist and the man who shares the credit for the development of punctuated equilibrium, a theory of evolution.

Immediately after completing his doctorate, Gould went to Harvard to teach. However, his relationship with the museum continued, and many of the columns he wrote for Natural History magazine were published as essays in his popular compilations. Gould wrote on many topics, and was famous for making science accessible to an intelligent but untrained public. However, most consider the theory of punctuated equilibrium to be his greatest contribution to science.

Gould and Eldredge’s theory was able to explain apparent gaps in evolution that had flummoxed Darwin. The father of evolution had attributed these gaps to missing evidence, but the two later biologists suspected that it was evolution itself that did not actually happen at an even, gradual rate. They posited that long periods of relative genetic stability are “punctuated” by short periods of rapid changes, resulting in new species.

In later life, Gould became absorbed with the art and ideas of Marcel Duchamp and founded the Art Science Research Laboratory (ASR Lab) with his wife, Rhonda Roland Shearer. The lab welcomes researchers from all fields, and on its site you can find an NPR interview about Gould’s obsession with Duchamp. Gould himself said he struggled to convince the public of his more controversial theories, and empathized with Duchamp in this area. The ASR Lab was started up to encourage interest in Duchamp’s work. 

Gould beat one form of cancer in the 1980s, only to succumb to another form of it on May 20, 2002. The ASR Lab has information about the memorial service held at New York University for Gould after his death. A eulogy, delivered by photographer Jill Krementz is accompanied by her photographs of the great scientist and humanitarian. She describes how once, when she was on the phone with Gould, her one-year-old daughter fell down the stairs. Gould patiently explained to her the science that enabled children to survive falls better than adults, and she said his ability to make science real, relevant, comprehensible and human was what defined this brilliant, caring and sincere scholar.