Review It is a wonder what Mr. Gould can do with the most unlikely phenomena: a tiny organism"s use of the earth"s magnetic field as a guide to food and comfort, for instance, or the panda"s thumb-which isn"t one. . . . Science writing at its best. (The New Yorker) Stephen Jay Gould is a serious and gifted interpreter of biological theory, of the history of ideas and of the cultural context of scientific discovery. . . . The Panda"s Thumb is fresh and mind-stretching. Above all, it is exultant. So should its readers be. (H. Jack Geiger - New York Times Book Review)