Seminar in Natural Science

 BGS 391 / Spring 2002

Required Texts (for Spring 2002 section)

Richard Lewontin, The Triple Helix:  Gene, Organism, and Environment.  Harvard Univ. Press, 2001.

Sandra Steingraber, Living Downstream: A Scientist's Personal Investigation of Cancer and the Environment.   Vintage Books, 1998.

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Jonathan Weiner, The Beak of the Finch:  A Story of Evolution in Our Time. 
Vintage Books, 1995.

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A Selected Natural Science Bibliography

The following books are not required.  However, for those of you who are interested in further reading and research, this list is a good starting point.  Some of these books have been used in previous 391 sections.  Most are available from college or even public libraries; all are in print. (I may distribute brief excerpts from this list from time to time.)

Genetics

  • Ruth Hubbard and Elijah Wald, Exploding the Gene Myth:  How Genetic Information is Produced and Manipulated by Scientists, Physicians, Employers, Insurance Companies, Educators, and Law Enforcers.  Beacon Press, 1999.

  • Larry Gonick and Mark Wheelis, The Cartoon Guide to Genetics.  HarperPerennial, 1991.

  • Maxim Frank-Kamenetskii, Unraveling DNA:  The Most Important Molecule of Life.  Perseus, 1997.

  • James Watson, The Double Helix:  a Personal Account of the Discovery of the Structure of DNA.  Norton Critical Edition.   Norton, 1980.

  • Evelyn Fox Keller,  A Feeling for the Organism:  The Life and Work of Barbara McClintock.  W. H. Freeman, 1983.

Evolution

  • Tim Berra.  Evolution and the Myth of Creationism:  A Basic Guide to the Facts in the Evolution Debate.  Stanford Univ. Press, 1990.

  • David Quammen, The Song of the Dodo:  Island Biogeography in an Age of Extinctions.  Touchstone, 1997.

  • Richard Dawkins, The Blind Watchmaker:  Why the Evidence of Evolution Reveals a Universe without Design.  Norton, 1996.

  • C. Leon Harris, ed.  Evolution:  Genesis and Revelations.  SUNY Press, 1981.  

  • Lyn Margulis and Dorion Sagan.  What Is Life?  Univ. of CA Press, 2000.

Ecology

  • Daniel Botkin, Discordant Harmonies:  A New Ecology for the 21st Century.  Oxford, 2000.

  • E. O. Wilson, The Diversity of Life.  Norton, 1999.

  • Rachel Carson, Silent Spring.  Houghton Mifflin, 1962.

General Biology

  • Ernst Mayr, This Is Biology:  The Science of the Living World.  Harvard, 1997.

  • Anne Fausto-Sterling, Myths of Gender:  Biological Theories about Women and Men.  Basic Books, 1992.

General Science

  • Carl Sagan, The Demon-Haunted World:  Science as a Candle in the Dark.  Ballantine, 1996.

  • E. O. Wilson, Consilience:  The Unity of Knowledge.  Random House, 1999.

  • Leslie Stevenson and Henry Byerly, eds.  The Many Faces of Science:  An Introduction to Scientists, Values, and Society.  Westview Press, 1995.  

  • Stephen Tchudi, ed.  Science, Values, and the American West.  Nevada Humanities Committee, 1997.

 

Mike Bryson
Associate Professor
University College
Roosevelt University

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ngeogmap.jpg (44878 bytes)

Map of Antarctica, where I did field work as part of a Woods Hole Oceangraphic Institute research group in 1991.

 

Last updated 01/18/02