The flamingo's smile

Sinopse

"THE FLAMINGO'S SMILE is about history," writes the author in this volume of essays, "...and about what it means to say that life is the product of a contingent past, not the inevitable and predictable result of simple, timeless laws of nature. Quirkiness and meaning are my two not-so-contradictory themes." Flamingos that feed upside down; flowers and snails that change from male to female; the probability that an errant asteroid sounded the death knell of the dinosaurs and ushered in the evolution of mankind...these are only a few of the things that open our eyes to the endless delights of Gould's subject...evolutionary theory.