Stephen Jay Gould: A Scientist Looks at Life

Part of a Dutch television series called Of Beauty and Consolation, this rambling profile of the late Stephen Jay Gould covers far-ranging ground, including his hero worship of Joe DiMaggio, love of choral singing, and thoughts on the limitations of “beauty” in natural law (example: calendar time). “God is either arcane or mathematically incompetent, just a jokester, or He doesn't exist,” Gould asserts half-facetiously. Time after time, the discussion is brought back to the series topic--beauty and consolation (the notion that beauty acts as an offsetting consolation for the pain of the human condition), but the connections often seem tenuous, at best. Granted, there are a few comments relating to Gould's actual field of expertise (evolutionary paleontology, although his interests and knowledge were encyclopedic), and he briefly discusses writing (describing the completion of a book as the end point of an organic process of research and thought, not an occasion for great celebration), but this is unlikely to appeal to the audience most likely to be drawn to the title--the scientific-minded. Optional. Aud: C, P. (R. Reagan)