How did the panda come to have an extra ‘thumb’ alongside its five fingers? Why are roughly the same number of men and women born each year, and did a lack of intelligence really seal the dinosaurs’ fate? These are among the questions tackled in this brilliant anthology by Harvard palaeontologist Stephen Jay Gould. An evolutionary scientist of distinction and one of the most widely read science writers of his generation, Gould opened up the wonders of evolution and the natural world to millions, and his wit and style carried the art of the scientific essay to new heights. Within the 31 provocative, mind-stretching chapters, he astonishes and amuses as he delves into how tiny bacteria use Earth’s magnetic field to seek out food, how a species of parasitic mite dies before it is born, and even why Mickey Mouse appears to be getting younger.