Reddit mentions: The best bacteriology books

The Genius Within http://www.amazon.com/The-Genius-Within-Discovering-Intelligence/dp/0151005516

A book I read this summer that I really enjoyed. You will learn to understand a new perspective on the concept of "smart." I also enjoyed his writing style and found it easy to read.

There are some good laboratory manuals that explain the principals behind many common protocols. In molecular biology, "Maniatis et al" is the grand-daddy of them all. In microbiology, Bergey's Manual is the go-to for identifying micro-organisms. You can probably find these in your library if there are not copies in your lab already.

It's a long time since I needed these, so there may be better manuals out there by now.

Who in the world modded you down?

Great book on your supposition:
http://www.amazon.com/Genius-Within-Discovering-Intelligence-Living/dp/0151005516

>when asking "well how do we resolve these issues?" we don't look to philosophy, we look to science.

And what does science look to? Essentially philosophy. Whether the theories to be tested are developed by looking for symmetries, or using Occam's razor, or appealing to some implicit principle from epistemology or philosophy of logic, it all boils down to philosophy. Science isn't independent of philosophy. It is far better described as a subset of philosophy which deals with the management of observed data.

It's easy for those in physics who are dealing primarily with equations to lose track of how many philosophical assumptions are being made in their theories. In many cases they would really benefit from paying attention to what philosophers have to contribute. Physicists today are quite rigorous with the numbers but they are not at all rigorous in the most crucial element of science -- their interpretations. (Huw Price's book on time asymmetry is an example of something that physicist's should be paying attention to as it very clearly points out logical contradictions and double standards being employed in the discussion of time by top physicists.)

I think right now the problem is that there are too many people in philosophy chiming in on things in physics with completely wrong statements when they don't have the background knowledge in the field to realize how poorly they've understand what is going on. We're seeing a similar thing happening in the other direction with well known physicists (like Stephen Hawking and Lawrence Krauss) who know next to nothing about metaphysics making utterly inane philosophical claims.

Have you ever read The Biography Of A Germ? If not, I do suggest it. It's a book on the genealogy and pathology of Borrelia burgdorferi (lyme disease bacteria).

http://www.amazon.com/Biography-Germ-Arno-Karlen/dp/0385720661

https://www.amazon.com/Indians-Wild-Plants-Medicine-Crafts/dp/0486230198

https://www.amazon.com/Mushrooms-North-America-Orson-Miller/dp/0525161651

Anatomy & Physiology: The Unity of Form and Function https://www.amazon.com/dp/B01MSDUQP1/ref=cm_sw_r_cp_apa_i_O5oqDbXWE34KM
This bad boy