[Cincinatus' Wife]

....And one more thing about Gould: he doesn't put scientists up on a pedestal. He's just as critical of "conventional wisdom" among scientists --- past and present ...

Scientists are human (shhh - some don't know that) and too often, will defend a pet theory regardless of new information.

[samtheman]

The thing about "pet theories", however, is they have a way of cancelling each other out, and whithering away, especially over a time-span of decades. Someone once said that old scientists never change their mind, they just die off. Something like that. But anyway, the process of science is as important to understand as the subjects of science themselves, and Gould is excellent at putting the process in the spotlight, and the practitioners in the hot-seat.