In which Max considers the problems involved in interpreting the enigmatic fossils of the Ediacaran Period, as well as some influential attempts to interpret them

In the second part of a three-part “Problematica,” Max examines why the development of punctuated equilibria did so little to upset Gould’s early adaptationist and progressivist ideas about evolution—at least at first

In the first part of a three-part installment of “Problematica,” Max examines what Stephen Jay Gould was up to on the eve of “Punctuated equilibria: an alternative to phyletic gradualism” (1972), and introduces an interpretive puzzle

In which Max reflects on the recent MBL-ASU History of Biology Seminar on historical contingency in biology

In which Max considers a recent account of historical natural kinds, and force-feeds it the example of the “great evolutionary faunas”

In which Max examines two attempts to use Mars to better understand the past and future of Earth, respectively