In Brief

Galileo's Gout: Science in an Age of Endarkenment, By Gerald Weissmann, 192 pp., Bellevue Literary Press, $25. The first effort for the Bellevue Literary Press is a collection of essays by the rheumatologist and author whose literary and medical pursuits have led many to consider him Lewis Thomas' heir.

An Illusion of Harmony: Science And Religion in Islam, By Taner Edis, 250 pp., Prometheus Books, $28. Edis, an associate professor of physics at Truman State University in Missouri, examines the challenges facing Muslim societies in a modern technological world.

The Richness of Life: The Essential Stephen Jay Gould, Edited by Steven Rose, 654 pp., W.W. Norton & Co., $35. This collection of 44 essays starts with "I Have Landed," the final column of the late evolutionary theorist and author's impressive run at Natural History.

The Accidental Mind: How Brain Evolution Has Given Us Love, Memory, Dreams, and God, by David J. Linden, 265 pp., Harvard University Press, $25.95. In his book, Linden, a Johns Hopkins neuroscientist, looks at the "cobbled-together mess, shaped by millions of years of evolutionary history into a very quirky and particular edifice," says the publisher.