ABSTRACT
The work of Stephen Jay Gould, Harvard Professor of Geology and prolific popular author, occupies a sanctified position within the realm of popular science writers. The way in which his popular texts negotiate relations of science and society fulfils the requirements of the socially responsible populariser for many readers. Academic critic Midgley places Gould on her ‘honours list’ of popularisers (1994:225), while Masur states that ‘[no] one has been more visible, successful [and] influential’ (1993:114) in the task of ‘translat[ing] internalist scientific developments into public questions of both philosophical and practical significance’ (1993:113).1 A translator alters something that was previously uninterpretable into something ‘we’ can understand. Any translation is, according to Benjamin, a ‘regulated transformation’ (1969). The highly regarded status and popularity of Gould’s writings provides insight into the claims and motivations of popular science writing as a whole, in that Gould’s transformation of the technicalities of science is suitably regulated to the hegemonic ethos of popular science. That is, Gould manages convincingly to negotiate a relation between science and society that discharges his target audience’s expectations.
