Biology 480 - Reading List
 
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      All students will read five books during the semester.  Three will be read by all students in the course (common texts) and two will be chosen individually (chosen texts).   The commmon texts are:

 Title  Author  
Making PCR Paul Rabinow  
Fast Food Nation Eric Schlosser
Concilience: The Unity of Knowledge Edward O. Wilson  

     Common texts will be available in the campus bookstore, but may be purchased elsewhere.

   

     Options for the chosen texts are listed in the table below.  The "Available?" column indicates whether the the book has already been chosen by someone else.  "Yes" in this column means that you can choose this book. To choose a book, please email Dr. Ernsting. Do not begin the book until you have received confirmation.

 Title   Author  Available?
 Clones, Genes, and Immortality
Ethics and the Genetic Revolution
John Harris Yes
Chance in the House of Fate Jennifer Ackerman Yes
The Mating Mind Geoffrey Miller Yes
 The Broken Cord
(Fetal Alcohol Syndrome)
Michael Dorris No
 The Structure of Scientific Revolutions
(Paradigms and Crises)
Thomas Kuhn No
The Extended Phenotype (Molecular Evolution) Richard Dawkins  No
 Full House
The Spread of Excellence from Plato to Darwin
Stephen Jay Gould No
 At Home in the Universe
(Life and Complexity)
Stuart Kaufman No
 Sex on the Brain
The Biological Differences Between Men and Women
Deborah Blum No
 Silent Spring (Ecological Bellwether) Rachel L. Carson No
 Living Downstream
An Ecologist Looks at Cancer and the Environment
Sandra Steingraber No
 Cadillac Desert
The American West and Its Disappearing Water
Mark Reisner Yes
 The Man Who Mistook His Wife for a Hat
And Other Clinical Tales
Oliver W. Sacks No
 The Unsettling of America
Culture & Agriculture
Wendell Berry No
 Altars of Unhewn Stone
Science and the Earth
Wes Jackson  Yes
 Encounters with the Archdruid
(Brower, Dominy, et al and the Glen Canyon Dam)
John McPhee  Yes
 Guns, Germs and Steel
The Fates of Human Societies
Jared Diamond No
 And the Band Played on
Politics, People, and the AIDS Epidemic
Randy Shilts No
A Sand County Almanac and Sketches Here and There
(Profundity in the common)
Aldo Leopold Yes
 My Own Country
A Doctor's Story
Abraham Verghese No
 Captain of Death
The Story of Tuberculosis
Thomas M. Daniel No
 Curing Cancer : Solving One of the Greatest Medical Mysteries of Our Time Michael Waldholz No
 This Is Biology : The Science of the Living World Ernst Mayr No
 The Intern Blues
The Private Ordeals of Three Young Doctors
Robert Marion Yes
 Egg & Ego : An Almost True Story of Life in the Biology Lab J. M. W. Slack No
Darwin's Ghost
The Origin of Species Updated
Steve Jones Yes
How the Mind Works Steven Pinker Yes
Dark Life : Martian Nanobacteria, Rock-Eating Cave Bugs, and Other Extreme Organisms of Inner Earth and Outer Space Michael Ray Taylor No
Flu : The Story of the Great Influenza Pandemic of 1918 and the Search for the Virus That Caused It Gina Kolata No
Genome : The Autobiography of a Species in 23 Chapters Matt Ridley No

   

     When you decide on a book, please send me an email (or just stop me in the hall) to confirm your selection. I would prefer that each book be read by no more than one student, so please talk to me before you begin reading. Some of these titles may be available in the library or at local bookstores. All are available at any of the online booksellers (Amazon, Borders, Barnes and Noble). These web sites should also provide additional information on titles that sound interesting. If you are having trouble finding a book, please let me know.