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  
A Machine to make a Future Paul Rabinow  
Field Notes from a Catastrophe Elizabeth Kolbert
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 No
The Mating Mind Geoffrey Miller No
 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 Yes
 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 No
 Fatal Sequence

Kevin J. Tracey No
 The Unsettling of America
Culture & Agriculture
Wendell Berry No
 Altars of Unhewn Stone
Science and the Earth
Wes Jackson No
 Encounters with the Archdruid
(Brower, Dominy, et al and the Glen Canyon Dam)
John McPhee  Yes
 Collapse
How Societies choose to fail or succeed
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
Monster of God:
The Man-Eating Predator in the Jungles of History and the Mind
David Quammen 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 Yes
 The Intern Blues
The Private Ordeals of Three Young Doctors
Robert Marion No
 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 No
Parasite Rex : Inside the Bizarre World of Nature's Most Dangerous Creatures
Carl Zimmer No
Flu : The Story of the Great Influenza Pandemic of 1918 and the Search for the Virus That Caused It Gina Kolata No
The Origins of Virtue: Human Instincts and the Evolution of Cooperation Matt Ridley No
Why People Believe Weird Things: Pseudoscience, Superstition. and other Confusions of our Time Michael Shermer No
Fashionable Nonsense: Postmodern Intellectuals' Abuse of Science
by Alan Sokal, Jean Bricmont Yes
What is Art For?

Adaptive role of artistic behavior.

Ellen Dissanayake No
Endless Forms Most Beautiful

Sean B. Carroll No
The Secret Life of Lobsters Trevor Corson No
Breaking the Spell: Religion as a Natural Phenomenon Daniel Dennett No
Lords of the Fly: Drosophila Genetics and the Experimental Life Robert Kohler Yes

   

     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.