Stephen Jay Gould’s writing remains the modern standard by which popular science writing is judged. Ever since the late 1970s, his monthly essay in Natural History and his full-length books have bridged the yawning gap between science and wider culture. This fascinating new collection of essays from Natural History is his next to last. Gould has once again applied biographical perspectives to the illumination of key scientific concepts and their history, ranging from the origins of palaeontology to modern eugenics and genetic engineering. As always, the essays brilliantly illuminate and elucidate the puzzles and paradoxes great and small that have fuelled the enterprise of science and opened our eyes to a world of unexpected wonders.