Biology Books

Manly has written a nice intermediate level book on research studies that is particularly useful for statisticians and researchers in the medical field. In addition to being well written and covering many of the common topics like observational versus experimentally designed studies, bias and confounding, survey design and regression, Manly covers topics not common to most texts including: (1) mark-recapture sampling, (2) size-biased sampling, (3)interrupted time series, (4) some advanced designs such as split plots, latin squares, nested factors and repeated measurements, (5) computer-intensive methods, (6) ethical considerations in experiments and (7) a chapter on synthesis which goes through the steps in carrying out a good research study.
Computer-intensive methods covered in Chapter 9 such as permutation and bootstrap methods are covered in more detail in Manly's book "Randomization, Bootstrap and Monte Carlo Methods in Biology." There are also a number of other specialized texts on these topics.

Throughout, the methods are reinforced with many practical examples from the biological sciences.

Manly has written a nice intermediate level book on research studies that is particularly useful for statisticians and researchers in the medical field. In addition to being well written and covering many of the common topics like observational versus experimentally designed studies, bias and confounding, survey design and regression, Manly covers topics not common to most texts including: (1) mark-recapture sampling, (2) size-biased sampling, (3)interrupted time series, (4) some advanced designs such as split plots, latin squares, nested factors and repeated measurements, (5) computer-intensive methods, (6) ethical considerations in experiments and (7) a chapter on synthesis which goes through the steps in carrying out a good research study.

Computer-intensive methods covered in Chapter 9 such as permutation and bootstrap methods are covered in more detail in Manly's book "Randomization, Bootstrap and Monte Carlo Methods in Biology." There are also a number of other specialized texts on these topics.

Throughout, the methods are reinforced with many practical examples from the biological sciences.

A devil's chaplain, selected essays by Richard Dawkins
Since I started my studies of biology about ten years ago, Darwin's theory of evolution by natural selection has been always present and seemed to me an easy, unmysterious one. However, only recently, I realized that I was missing much of the point and I begun to understand the real dimension of this theory, the importance of its implications to understand our nature and our life nowadays. I never felt there was anything else to be understood, even though the meaning of Dobzhansky's sentence: "nothing in biology makes sense except in the light of evolution" always resulted a bit unclear for me.
Maybe it is because I am a bit stupid, but maybe not. Maybe my case is not an exception and many professionals of the biological sciences are still missing much of this point. But still worse, most of our society, most of societies are still missing it. This is particularly true when talking about the people from social sciences: psychologists, cultural anthropologists, historians, and so many others. Thus, the full implications of the Darwinian Theory are yet to be discovered by our society, and many good things are to come when it happens.
Richard Dawkins' Devil's Chaplain is a wonderful gate to the Darwinian perspective both for the expert on the matter as for the not. It is a strong book, full of intelligent and rational thinking, always in the light of evolution.
The book is composed by a series of essays written by Professor Dawkins during the last 25 years and initially thought to be published in a variety of media, such as newspapers, book chapters, book reviews, obituaries, and others. This diversity in origin and objective of the essays, instead of being a handicap for the book results into a fresh and easy to read combination.
Texts are grouped in seven sections according to their character. I found all the essays interesting and worthy reading, but naturally some of them more than others. I particularly enjoyed reading the first three sections, perhaps the more important of the book.
In Science and sensibility (first section) we find eight essays where Dawkins links science with ethics and philosophy. In What is true? he strikes against the double standards, and defends the existence of trustable truths; Gaps in the mind, also discusses again the double standards, in this cases for ethic considerations. He discusses the unnatural nature of our human-centered ethics, and the lack of consistency between the human/animal frontier, so natural for all us. Dawkins is brave and provocative, and is not afraid to declare his interest in seeing a hybrid of human and chimpanzee. It was delightful; Genetics, risk and ethics, is a text specifically written for Tony Blair, where he brightly exposes the "risks and ethicsEof the present fast development of genetics. Some of the most interesting lines that I have read about genetics for lay people. Finally Postmodernism disrobed is a really funny review of Intellectual impostures, a book deconstructing the bases of the postmodernism. I really laughed reading Lacan's equations about the men's organ. Please read it!
In Light will be thrown, the second section, Dawkins mainly discusses topics about the natural selection as motor of evolution, the figure of Darwin, and the power of his theory. Especially I liked The "information challenge"and Son of Moore's law, because he imaginatively introduces interesting topics as the theory of information, and its parallelism with current genetics, and the expected development of this field in the next 50 years.
The infected mind, third section, is dedicated to the memes, and to one of DawkinsEfavorite type: religions and their role in our societies. They told me, Heraclitus contains several obituaries where I really enjoyed reading the one for WD Hamilton and snake oil a text against the supposed miracles of alternative medicines, particularly homeopathy; Even the ranks of Tuscany, which also has something of obituary, is in fact composed by reviews to several books of SJ Gould, with a tender text coauthored by these two confronted heavyweights of Darwinian evolutionism; the last two sections are by far more personal. From There is all Africa and her prodigies in us, I will mention Heroes and ancestors, where some Herculean Africa researchers, as the Leakey and the Douglas-Hamilton families, pioneers of the conservation ecology in Eve's continent. A prayer for my daughter is an open letter written to his daughter at her age of 10, talking about what kind of things are worthy to be believed and which things not (tradition, authority and revelation). It resulted a bit harsh for a 10 years old kid but a coherent end for the book.

This is a collection of essays, lectures and even obituaries written by Dawkins over a period of 25 years. I picked it up with some hesitation because many such collections, even by thinkers as brilliant as Dawkins, fail to hang together or turn out to be dated. Dawkins dodges both of these pitfalls. He organizes the pieces into six meaninful sections, and since most of the essays explore deep and important issues in evolution, biology or science itself, they remain timely.

Early in the book Dawkins repeates Dobzhansky's famous quote, "Nothing in biology makes sense except in the light of evolution." It's that light that pervades most of these essays, as it does most of Dawkins' work. I especially liked his skewering of genetic determinism based on the fact that the genome of an organism is not a blueprint but a recipe. As Dawkins puts it, an engineer can work backwards from a building to its blueprint, but there's no unique path back from an organism to its genes.

In this volume Dawkins also takes on broader issues, such as faith vs. science, and the postmodern reduction of all ideas to the same level. His views on these subjects are clear, uncompromising, and well worth reading.

His writing is always clear and sometimes beautiful. Here's one of his fine passages: "The human mind is a wanton storyteller and, even more, a profligate seeker after pattern. We see faces in clouds and tortillas, fortunes in tea leaves and planetary movements. . . That is what statistics are for."

Not every essay is earth-shaking, but they are well worth reading carefully, some more than once.

Robert Adler, author of Medical Firsts: From Hippocrates to the Human Genome, and Science Firsts: From the Creation of Science to the Science of Creation.

I'm a college student, and I'm studying biology. This book is going to make my life a lot easier. I've already used it several times, and the definitions are easy to understand and straight to the point. This book will soon become my "best friend." One negative, though. The book is from 1997, so it might not be up-to-date on certain issues. Other than that, it will give you a solid foundation of definitions you can always rely on. I can't wait for the newest edition of this book to be released.

Great! Every word I looked up was there, with an easy to understand definition.

I have many of them and my favorite. Dictionary of Economics. In summary a scale that defines savings and interest rates. What moves them expenditure. And what brings it back to balance. The hand of time!

This is a relatively inexpensive, concise, and handy dictionary of science. It is an updated version of the Concise Science Dictionary originally published by the Oxford University Press in 1984. This, the latest edition, is from 1999. It is aimed at professionals and an educated public who want a quick reference to terms in fields other than their own. Unlike science dictionaries found on the reference shelves of libraries, this book is small enough to fit into a knapsack.

As with all specialized dictionaries the task for editors is to decide what to leave in and what to leave out, and how technical to get. The people at Oxford University Press, one of the preeminent publishers of reference books in the world, have tried to eschew "unnecessary scientific jargon" while "always bearing in mind the needs of the readers" (from the Preface). Nonetheless, many of the entries are highly technical, having been written by experts. Clearly the editors have decided to err on the side of technical precision rather than anything resembling a dumbing down. The entry on "optical activity" for example is a mini essay of about 400 words adorned with a drawing of the D-, L-, and meso-forms of the isomers of tartaric acid along with several cross references to related terms in the dictionary. A two-page boxed entry on "El Nino" however is written in language easily accessible to the average high school graduate, as are many other entries including over 160 mini biographies of important scientists.

I also use The American Heritage Dictionary of Science, another handy (as opposed to comprehensive) reference and would like to make a quick comparison. The Heritage dictionary is a hardcover and contains noticeably more entries (16,000+ to perhaps 10,000 to 12,000 for the Oxford). However the Heritage hasn't been updated since the edition of 1988. Of course a lot has happened in science since then, which is why I purchased the Oxford paperback. The Heritage also uses the entries words or phrases in sentences, usually quoting some scientist whereas the Oxford does not bother. The Heritage also gives the pronunciation of most of the entries (e.g., it's "pree'-on," not "pri'-on" for the mad cow infectious agent) whereas the Oxford does not. The Oxford is more technical overall--it is especially strong in physics--and of course more up to date. The entries also tend to be more thorough. For example, the Oxford has a schematic drawing of a mammalian kidney system whereas the Heritage has only text.

There are seven appendices on SI units, fundamental constants, the solar system, the geographical time scale, plant and animal kingdom classifications, and the periodic table. Curiously, nowhere in the Oxford is the abbreviation SI defined or even noted! The Heritage gives it as the French Systeme International d'Unites (or International System of Units). This is actually an indication of how the Oxford assumes a greater scientific sophistication on the part of its readers than does the Heritage.

Bottom line here is that this book is practically a must for those who read a lot of science in fields other than their own. It is better overall than the Heritage because it is eleven years more up to date; and it is a better choice for most people than the more comprehensive hardcover volumes which are significantly more expensive, heavier and take up more space.

My friend, Karen Alf, participated in the 1st chapter. Anything, she has touched with her intelligence and charm is wonderful.

This is a collection of papers on finidings related to dinosaur eggs and developing dinosaurs. The papers are of a technical nature, so it's not for the casual reader, but for those interested in the details it is a great resource.

I agree completely with the first reviewer. A particularly strong part of Young's analysis is his clear understanding of the nature of science and how theories function in making the world comprehensible. This would be a wonderful book for anyone who, although tempted by the claims of so-called "scientific creationism," is nevertheless willing to objectively examine the reasons evolution is the overwhelming choice of scientists who are trying to understanding the development of life on earth.

David Young's book is the best general history of evolutionary thought that I've read. The book can be used as an introduction, but it is informed by immense scholarship and a deep understanding of its subject. After reading other histories, I keep coming back to Young for clarification. His central merit is that he demonstrates the inner logic in the theories of previous ages. He makes it clear why such theories seemed plausible at the time, in the light of available evidence, and further, he reveals what is in fact generally valid in ideas that we now often regard as merely quaint and obsolete. If one reads Lyell and Darwin on their predecessors, one has the impression that these predecessors were often ridiculously mistaken. Lyell and Darwin are naturally intent on the promulgation of their own particular theories, theories defined by contrast with those of the predecessors. Young demonstrates the ways in which the predecessors built up, bit by bit, the whole set of ideas and observations that made Lyell and Darwin possible. The exposition of post-Darwinian evolutionary thought is similarly lucid and sympathetic. One secret of Young's insight is suggested in his title, "the discovery of evolution." He regards evolution as a reality, not merely as a "paradigm," much less as a set of ideological constructs. The protagonists of his narrative are animated by the spirit of discovery. They are on a collective quest, and the stages of their quest are the observations they make and the explanations that make sense of their observations. Young has the great historian's gift for presenting the motives and actions of individuals separated by time and space as parts of an integrated sequence-a single narrative action. The copious and often beautiful illustrations, taken from historical sources, are a treasury in themselves. The biographical register and bibliographic essay are very helpful reference sources. This is an exceptionally fine book, immensely readable and unusually illuminating.

This book is great! Has an enormous amount of information, that is supported by medical information, wonderful drawings, great humor, and is great for children (and adults actually)! I would recommend this book to anyone with children, as it's a fun way to learn about their environment. Mr. Day is an excellent author, and I look forward to seeing more of his work!

As an educator for 30 years, I love every page, every illustration, every humor punctuated in the text!
Every school library should have this book!
Dr. Yu-Lan Lin
Boston Public Schools

Dorothy Sterling describes the Outer Lands (The Cape, Long Island, Nantucket, etc.) very eloquently, using understandable, interesting language. She adds charming local folklore and local sights, as well as maps and drawings that contribute so much to the book. This book is great for leasure reading as well as a textbook for a marine biology class.

Dorothy Sterling describes the Outer Lands (The Cape, Long Island, Nantucket, etc.) very eloquently, using understandable, interesting language. She adds charming local folklore and local sights, as well as maps and drawings that contribute so much to the book. This book is great for leasure reading as well as a textbook for a marine biology class.

I have been a strong advocate of Elaine Morgan's Aquatic Ape Theory and Murray's Sea Energy. This book combines my favorite subjects, e.g., evolution, aquatic ape theory, the energy of the sea water and nutrition. It is the only one of its kind. Yet, it is out of print. I donot understand that. Evolutionist are either blind with their own theories or just getting old. I noticed that terrestrial evolutionists debunk the AAT, while the marine evolutionists tend to accept AAT. I wonder if they also recognize the influence of nutrition on evolution of homo sapiens.
Miguel Melgar

A species must have the proper nutrition to thrive, if nutrition changes the species must adapt. Better adapted mutations survive and the species is changed. For other challenges the nutritional support for the adapting mutation must be present. For instance, man must have developed his big brain while he had access to omega 3 fatty acids ---most likely near a lake or the ocean. Today,the IQ in UK is declining to lack of proper nutrition

Peress's 'Dvorak to Duke Ellington' is necessary reading for any serious Duke Ellington fan or any student of the lineage of jazz.

Despite long passages spoken in highly technical musical terminology (which will be manna for composers out there), Peress brings so many interesting anecdotes to light, so many fresh insights into Ellington's working methods to composing, laypersons too will gain profound wisdom into the infrastructure that later brought BeBop, hardBop, Modern, R&B, Blues and Rock & Roll into reality.

For Duke lovers, it is heartening to see Peress discover (tearfully) what we already had known: his music is a gift to world history. Peress's nuanced details as to how Duke scored his sobering emotional analyses of Black Culture is particularly stunning, he having access to rare Ellington family archives and an insiders association with the Duke.

And Duke was a poet - literally. YES!

I was completely taken aback at how much is owed to Antonin Dvorak, the Czech emigree, for shaping the jazz juggernaut, or more specifically, the jazz orchestral juggernaut. I am not sure that the limber modern Jazz idiom as we know it, or the Gershwin orchestral phenomenon, would have garnered legitimacy without Dvorak's extra-ordinary cheerleading of our indigenous arts such as Ragtime, sharecropper tunes, and gospel songs. There is an argument intrinsically proffered in the book that Dvorak might have assisted in the abolition of minstrelsy itself.

Peress only missed a few related facts. For instance, he did not cover the Harlem Renaissance leadership and it's muscular shaping of the Jazz and Blues idioms. Those gentlemen (Dubois, et.al) also marketed the Duke heavily, and deserve a mention in this book. Peress also did not describe the original etymology of Jazz as being 'Jass,' a vulgar term coined by whites for early New Orleans jazz that meant something akin to Sexual Intercourse, which I believe should be defined in every sweeping analysis of this art.

Lastly, this book reveals the star-touched career of the author, Maurice Peress, as a composer. I look forward to collecting Peress's jazz re-conditionings, as well as Classical recordings, on CD and vinyl at the soonest opportunity.

Michael James Hawk
Seattle WA USA
July 3, 2007

Maurice Peress is an inspiring guide to the main roads and byways of American music. A conductor of distinction and a writer, scholar and thinker of substance, he offers a combination of personal reminiscences and exciting historical discoveries. He is a leading expert on Dvorak and his time, and offers fresh new insights into the material. His original research on Dvorak's American years has been quite influential in the development of this field more broadly and thus he may be considered the "Dean" of American Dvorak scholarship.

This is a splendid book to read straight through, or to browse and enjoy.