De populaire evolutie bioloog Stephen Jay Gould is maandag overleden aan kanker (BBC News).
Over de plaats van de mens in de evolutie sprak hij ooit ontnuchterend: “a tiny accident occurring on a minor side-branch of the evolutionary tree“.
Toen hij in juli 1982(!) van z’n arts hoorde dat zijn median mortality 8 maanden zou bedragen benaderde hij ook dit feit puur wetenschappelijk.
When I learned about the eight-month median, my first intellectual reaction was: fine, half the people will live longer; now what are my chances of being in that half. I read for a furious and nervous hour and concluded, with relief: damned good. I possessed every one of the characteristics conferring a probability of longer life: I was young; my disease had been recognized in a relatively early stage; I would receive the nation’s best medical treatment; I had the world to live for; I knew how to read the data properly and not despair.
(The Median Isn’t the Message).