NEWS HEADLINES
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French MPs approve assisted dying law with strict rules after years of argument
The bill would allow assisted dying for terminally ill adults who meet strict criteria. read more
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Iran threatens to block more trade routes as US launches fresh strikes
US President Donald Trump vowed to strike Iran's bridges and power plants next week if the country does not return to talks. read more
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Trump retreat over Hormuz tolls suggests he is struggling to end Iran war
The abrupt about-face from the US president was the latest twist in a conflict that has now lasted more than four months. read more
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More people around the world now favour China over the US, Pew study suggests
There is more confidence in Xi Jinping than Donald Trump, the US think tank's survey indicates. read more
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Russian attacks kill eight as Ukraine hits Black Sea oil tankers
Civilian casualties are reported in four Ukrainian regions, while Kyiv hits 20 Russian vessels in the Black Sea. 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.
