Someone told me recently that there had been some controversies
regarding Stephen Jay Gould's work... I know that, as with all
scientists, is theories were not shared by everybody, but was there recently
some mini-scandal regarding his work ?

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Request for Question Clarification by justaskscott-ga on 12 Oct 2006 20:55 PDT

Are you referring to Gould's views on punctuated equilibrium?

"Stephen Jay Gould," by Steven Rose (May 22, 2002)
Guardian Unlimited
http://books.guardian.co.uk/obituaries/story/0,11617,720266,00.html

If this is correct, I'd be happy to post it (along with another link,
if you'd like) as an answer.

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Clarification of Question by stranger234-ga on 17 Oct 2006 12:22 PDT

I posted what I was looking for in the comments section... This was
the first time that I use this service...

Thank you !

There is a book called "Why Gould Was Wrong":

http://www.amazon.com/Why-Gould-Wrong-Nils-Oeijord/dp/0595752071

The most recent controversy involving Stephen Jay Gould of which I am
aware involved a lawsuit filed by his family against several doctors
and hospitals. I wouldn't call it a "mini-scandal," though, and it was
not related to Gould's work.

http://www.msnbc.msn.com/id/7926329/

No I was not referring to Gould's and Eldredge views on punctuated
equilibrium... In fact, I did not mention exactly what I heard because
I did not want it to cause prejudice to the reputation of Mr. Gould.

The reason why I posted this question was because someone told me that
Gould modified some of is data in order to validate his work. This
sounded extremely strange to me, because I consider him as the perfect
man of science : researching, teaching and writing for the public.

I know that it is hard to prove that somethings does not exist (like
the teapot of Mr. Dawkins...)... So I'll take it that if nobody found
anything about this speculation or urban legend, it must be false.

Thank you !

I'll leave this question open a few days. If no answers are posted
since then, I'll cancel it still considering Mr. Gould as one of the
greatest man of science of our time !