Gould, Stephen Jay. The Lying Stones of Marrakech: Penultimate Reflections in Natural History. New York: Harmony Books, 2000.

2. The paradox of the visibly irrelevant. (342)

many commentators (and research scientists as well) ally themselves too stronlt with one of the oldest (and often fallacious) traditions of Western thought: reductionism, or the assumption that laws and mechanics of the smallest constituents must explain objects and events at all scales and times. Thus, if we can render the behavior of a large body (an organism or a plant, for example) as a consequence of atoms and molecules in motion, we feel that we have developed a “deeper” or “more basic” understanding than if our explanatory principles engage only large objects themselves, and not their constituent parts. (pp. 342-343)

Reductionists assume that documenting evolution at the smallest scale of a few years and generations should provide a general model of explanation for events at all scales and times – so these cases should become a gold standard for the entire field, hence their status as front-page news. (343)