Okay peeps, I know that many of you are lurkers at this website (according to the visits from the sitemeter stats). But I want you to come out of your closet and tell me what scientific classical text do you think that every young academic should read? It can be a book, an article, essay, book chapter etc. And I don't want to limit this to biology. Just include the discipline of science when you name the text! You don't have to give your name, just comment anonymously if you're too shy.
25 comments:
For biologists,
I think the following:
1. Wynne-Edwards, V.C. 1962. Animal Dispersion in Relation to Social Behavior.
2. George William's 1966
Adaptation and Natural Selection
Read in that order. The Williams book is a response to the Wynn-Edwards one.
The Feynman lectures on physics
Read every book ever written by Stephen Jay Gould, especially "Wonderful Life."
Read every book ever written by Richard Dawkins, especially "The Blind Watchmaker" and "The Extended Phenotype." (Don't forget "The Structure of Evolutionary Theory" - allow several months.)
Then go back and re-read the Spandrels paper making sure you understand the main point. You will be forced into becoming either a Gouldian pluralist or an Dawkinson adaptationist.
Biology
The Beak of the Finch - Jonathan Weiner
+ any and all Dawkins
BIOLOGY
"On the Origin of Species by Means of Natural Selection or the Preservation of Favored Races in the Struggle for Life" by Charles Darwin.
GENERAL SCIENCE
"The Pleasure of Finding Things Out" by Richard P. Feynman.
Seconding Larry Moran, I'd suggest Gould's 'Wonderful Life' and 'The Mismeasure of Man'. Dawkins' 'The Selfish Gene' is a must as well. I'd also put in Jared Diamond's 'Guns, Germs, and Steel' or 'Collapse' as examples of how natural history can help the study of history as a social science... I'm not near my bookshelf, so that's all I've got to offer right now!
Carlo (Fellow Canadian Postdoc in the States)
For evolution:
Like Larry Moran said, read all Dawkins books.
and...
"Life Ascending: The Ten Great Inventions of Evolution" By Nick Lane
"Your Inner Fish: A Journey Into the 3.5-Billion-Year History of the Human Body" By Neil Shubin
"Darwin's Dangerous Idea: Evolution and the Meanings of Life" By Daniel Dennett
"Endless Forms Most Beautiful: The New Science of Evo Devo and the Making of the Animal Kingdom" By Sean B. Carroll
"Why Evolution Is True" By Jerry A. Coyne
"The Tangled Bank: An Introduction to Evolution" By Carl Zimmer
For physics:
"Pale Blue Dot: A Vision of the Human Future in Space" By Carl Sagan
"The Demon-Haunted World: Science as a Candle in the Dark" By Carl Sagan
"The Fabric of the Cosmos: Space, Time, and the Texture of Reality" By Brian Greene
For ecology:
"Last Chance to See" By Douglas Adams and Mark Carwardine
For biology:
"Wetware: A Computer in Every Living Cell" By Dennis Bray
For psychology:
"Bright-Sided: How the Relentless Promotion of Positive Thinking Has Undermined America" By Barbara Ehrenreich
For nutrition:
"The Paleo Solution: The Original Human Diet" By Robb Wolf
For general science:
"A Natural History of Seeing: The Art and Science of Vision" By Simon Ings
"Oxygen: The Molecule that Made the World" By Nick Lane
I nominate Strunk and White's Elements of Style, because most academics could write much better than they do.
Carl Sagan, "The Demon-Haunted World"
Francis Bacon, "New Atlantis"
Every book Carl Zimmer has written.
John McPhee, "The Control of Nature"
David Quammen, "Monster of God: The Man-Eating Predator in the Jungles of History and the Mind"
Richard Preston: "The Demon in the Freezer"
The Feynman Lectures on Physics
plus
Physical Chemistry: A Molecular Approach
On Evolution:
"The Greatest Show On Earth" by Dawkins.
"Why Evolution is true" by Coyne.
"Your Inner Fish" by Neil Shubin.
"Wonderful Life" by Gould.
Micc:
"The Trouble with Physics" by I forget.
Unfortunately I don't know many others off the top of my head.
Collapse by Jared Diamond.
And others, yes, but you asked for just one.
Two memiors I have enjoyed are "Wrinkles in Time" by George Smoot and "Braindance" by Dean Falk.
"Surely Your Joking, Mr. Feynman" is very funny.
Most of my recommendations have already been mentioned apart from; the logic of scientific discovery by Popper
Investigations by Stuart Kauffman is an absolute must.
All of lee smolin's books (including the trouble w/ physics as another person said)
Dr. Moran's suggestions
Darwin
hm, tough one. I do like some of the more "classical" texts on philosophy/research theory - like Popper, Hume or Kant. Popper might be the "best" partly since I think the Raven paradox is one of the key ones for explaining why one shouldn't overstate the importance of one occurance but sometimes it is pivotal (it just have to be the "right occurance" to mess up the hypothesis...)
Benno Müller-Hill: The lac-operon.
It provides insight in the early days of molecular biology. Everybody who ever used alpha complementation for blue/white screening of E.coli colonies should know what it is based on and how this knowledge emerged.
Also recommended:
Mark Ptashne: A Gene Switch
FLOW CYTOMETRY:
Howard Shapiro is a true god in writing about flow - read this if you ever want to understand this technique.
PRACTICAL FLOW CYTOMETRY
Kuhn's The Structure of Scientific Revolutions.
I second Kuhn's "The Structure of Scientific Revolutions"
Pinker's "How the Mind Works"
Although simpler than some books posted here, I liked "The Double Helix" because not only did it include science, but it also focused on the human aspect of science in terms of research teams interactions etc.
Double Helix is definitely a must read, but it just makes me want to punch Watson in his pasty little mouth.
Punk.
@Nat Blair
Wow. What does it say about him that makes you want to do that? Is it his sexism?
It's the way he talks about a treat Rosalind Franklin. Not that Crick or Wilkins are much better (especially the recent discovery of old Crick's correspondence, supporting how they shafted Franklin contributions), but something about that little jerk annoys me. His later racist comments certainly don't help.
To me he's an epitome of the no holds barred, ends justify the means type of scientist.
And adding insult to injury, he brings a bad name on our shared undergraduate alma mater! :)
Medawar - Advice to a Young Scientist.
Even established scientists should read this again from tim-to-time as a refresher and attitude adjuster.The part on how to give a scientific presentation alone is a must read.
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