Reinventing Darwin: The Great Debate at the High Table of Evolutionary Theory

When Niles Eldredge and Stephen Jay Gould, two of the world's leading evolutionary theorists, proposed a bold new theory of evolution—the theory of "punctuated equilibria"—they stood the standard interpretation of Darwin on its head. They also ignited a furious debate about the true nature of evolution.

On the one side are the geneticists. They contend that evolution proceeds slowly but surely, driven b...