…and this is a 
Books for the Spring 2008 semester
Category: Academics • Books
Posted on: December 10, 2007 1:23 PM, by PZ Myers
The Fall semester is winding down — this is the last week of classes — so it's time to start thinking about the Spring term.
Ugh. I don't want to. This term has been driving me sufficiently insane as it is.
But anyway, if you're a student thinking about all the money you'll have to be spending on textbooks, here's a list of what you'll need to get if you're taking my courses. Feel free to order them from some other source than the university bookstore. I don't get a penny from the U bookstore, but I have to confess, the links below do tie into affiliate programs that give me a few pennies in gift certificates to the various online sources.
Freshman biology majors will be taking Biology 1111, Fundamentals of Genetics, Evolution, and Development (FunGenEvoDevo, for short), either in the fall or the spring term. This course is primarily a qualitative introduction to the basic concepts of the scientific method which will also give you an overview of the fields described in the title. It has three textbooks, but two of them are optional.
Science as a Way of Knowing: The Foundations of Modern Biology(amzn/b&n/abe/pwll), by John A. Moore. This is the primary required text for the course; you may be surprised when you read it, since it doesn't fit the usual expectations of an introductory biology textbook. We did tell you this was a liberal arts university when you enrolled, though, didn't we?
Life: The Science of Biology(amzn/b&n/abe/pwll), by David Sadava, H. Craig Heller , Gordon H. Orians, William K. Purves, David M. Hillis. This book is optional, but highly recommended, and will be used as a reference text throughout the course. You can get by using the copies in the reference section of the library, but since this book will also be used in our required biodiversity and cell biology courses, you might as well bite the expensive bullet and get a copy now. The links above are to the 8th and latest edition; it's fine to use the 7th edition.
The Counter-Creationism Handbook(amzn/b&n/abe/pwll), by Mark Isaak. This book is an entirely optional resource; if you're going to be a biologist, though, you're going to have to argue with creationists sometime, and this text is invaluable. We will, however, only be using it for about a week, so if it breaks your budget, feel free to share another student's copy.
I'll also be teaching Genetics, Biology 4312.
It all sounds so fun, doesn't it?
Education & Careers
Comments
Hey PZ, its really cool that you are giving this out so early. As a student, I can tell you the earlier the better, especially with all the mail based alternatives available today. Too many professors wait till the first day of school.
Good luck in the new semester.
Posted by: thadd | December 10, 2007 1:29 PM
What, no "Edge of Evolution"? No "No Free Lunch"? And you call yourself a scientist! ;)
Posted by: Ric | December 10, 2007 1:30 PM
Yikes, y'all have classes start in the 1000 range? Makes your school sound really hardcore.
Posted by: Mike Easter | December 10, 2007 1:31 PM
We are hardcore.
Posted by: PZ Myers | December 10, 2007 1:37 PM
Today is my last class period. Then it's just grading papers and writing a final exam. I'm exhausted this semester. Ended the semester sick with a lot of personal bullshit going on, too, so I'm am just plain ready to be done...I've enjoyed my students, but this semester needs to go away now.
Posted by: MAJeff | December 10, 2007 1:38 PM
I wonder if the 8th edition of _Life_ perpetuates the order-of-magnitude error found on pp. 1-2 of the 6th ed., which states that if the age of the earth were compressed into one month, human history would be 30 seconds long. No, it's 3 seconds if history goes back ~5000 years.
Also, the cost of this monster text must be close to the tuition for the course.
Posted by: Richard Carnes | December 10, 2007 1:45 PM
Carl Sagan's "The Demon-Haunted World" should be required reading for all students.
Posted by: Ashutosh | December 10, 2007 1:54 PM
Isn't the material in Isaak's Counter-Creationism Handbook all available at TalkOrigins? Not that I object to telling students about the book, of course (I like to have printed material even for things I can find online), but shouldn't they be pointed to the electronic copy, too?
Posted by: Blake Stacey | December 10, 2007 2:04 PM
"Science as a Way of Knowing": WtF?
Science is a method of inquiry, not a way of knowing. Knowing implies certainty. Popper, falsification, constant revision and testing....?
Posted by: Rich | December 10, 2007 2:35 PM
Great, now my Amazon Wish List just got bigger. Not nice, dangling crack in front of a junkie
Posted by: John C. Welch | December 10, 2007 3:47 PM
That is the great thing about my physics course, the whole first year is in one GIANT book. Yet non of the lecturers ever refer to the book, it is entirely for revision.
Posted by: Gobaskof | December 10, 2007 6:01 PM
Amazon send their thanks, as does Visa. They should give you a cut. My bank account, on the other hand, would like to have a little chat. And I'd already bought all my Cephalopodmas presents, except for a trip to Lee Valley tomorrow - I learned years ago that if I buy my presents, I get what I want.
Posted by: rp | December 10, 2007 6:52 PM
Posted by: zer0 | December 10, 2007 7:33 PM
Posted by: Sven DiMilo | December 10, 2007 7:39 PM
But that's it: knowing exactly how certainly we know exactly how much.
Posted by: David Marjanović, OM | December 10, 2007 7:57 PM
"Is knowledge knowable? If not, how do we know this?"
Woody Allen.
Posted by: Rich | December 10, 2007 10:33 PM
PZ,
Any plans for a web cast of your course like Berkeley web cast or MIT OCW. Also are there any good online books that people outside USA, like me, can access on the topics you have mentioned here?
Zhap.
Posted by: zhaphod | December 11, 2007 3:01 AM
What about us old geezers who have to self-educate? PODCASTS! I demand lecture PODCASTS!
Posted by: EnoNomi | December 11, 2007 3:49 PM