Reddit mentions: The best biochemistry books

Here's a list of books I've read that have had a big impact on my journey.

First and foremost tho, you should learn to meditate. That's the most instrumental part of any spiritual path.

 Ram Dass – “Be Here Now” - https://www.amazon.com/Be-Here-Now-Ram-Dass/dp/0517543052 - Possibly the most important book in the list – was the biggest impact in my life.  Fuses Western and Eastern religions/ideas. Kinda whacky to read, but definitely #1

Ram Dass - “Journey Of Awakening” - https://www.amazon.com/dp/B006L7R2EI - Another Ram Dass book - once I got more into Transcendental Meditation and wanted to learn other ways/types of meditation, this helped out.

 Clifford Pickover – “Sex, Drugs, Einstein & Elves…” - https://www.amazon.com/Sex-Drugs-Einstein-Elves-Transcendence/dp/1890572179/ - Somewhat random, frantic book – explores lots of ideas – planted a lot of seeds in my head that I followed up on in most of the books below

 Daniel Pinchbeck – “Breaking Open the Head” - https://www.amazon.com/Breaking-Open-Head-Psychedelic-Contemporary/dp/0767907434 - First book I read to explore impact of psychedelics on our brains

 Jeremy Narby – “Cosmic Serpent” - https://www.amazon.com/Cosmic-Serpent-DNA-Origins-Knowledge/dp/0874779642/ - Got into this book from the above, explores Ayahuasca deeper and relevancy of serpent symbolism in our society and DNA

 Robert Forte – “Entheogens and the Future of Religion” - https://www.amazon.com/Entheogens-Future-Religion-Robert-Forte/dp/1594774382 - Collection of essays and speeches from scientists, religious leaders, etc., about the use of psychedelics (referred to as Entheogens) as the catalyst for religion/spirituality

 Clark Strand – “Waking up to the Dark” - https://www.amazon.com/Waking-Up-Dark-Ancient-Sleepless/dp/0812997727 - Explores human’s addiction to artificial light, also gets into femininity of religion as balance to masculine ideas in our society

 Lee Bolman – “Leading with Soul” - https://www.amazon.com/Leading-Soul-Uncommon-Journey-Spirit/dp/0470619007 - Discusses using spirituality to foster a better, more supportive and creative workplace – pivotal in my honesty/openness approach when chatting about life with coworkers

 Eben Alexander – “Proof of Heaven” - https://www.amazon.com/Proof-Heaven-Neurosurgeons-Journey-Afterlife/dp/1451695195 - A neurophysicist discusses his near death experience and his transformation from non-believer to believer (title is a little click-baity, but very insightful book.  His descriptions of his experience align very similarly to deep meditations I’ve had)

 Indries Shah – “Thinkers of the East” - https://www.amazon.com/Thinkers-East-Idries-Shah/dp/178479063X/ - A collection of parables and stories from Islamic scholars.  Got turned onto Islamic writings after my trip through Pakistan, this book is great for structure around our whole spiritual “journey”

 Whitley Strieber – “The Key: A True Encounter” - https://www.amazon.com/Key-True-Encounter-Whitley-Strieber/dp/1585428698 - A man’s recollection of a conversation with a spiritual creature visiting him in a hotel room.  Sort of out there, easy to dismiss, but the topics are pretty solid

 Mary Scott – “Kundalini in the Physical World” - https://www.amazon.com/Kundalini-Physical-World-Mary-Scott/dp/0710094175/ - Very dense, very difficult scientific book exploring Hinduism and metaphysics (wouldn’t recommend this for light reading, definitely something you’d want to save for later in your “journey”)

 Hermann Hesse – “Siddartha” - https://www.barnesandnoble.com/w/siddhartha-hermann-hesse/1116718450? – Short novel about a spiritual journey, coming of age type book.  Beautifully written, very enjoyable.

Reza Aslan - “Zealot” - https://www.amazon.com/ZEALOT-Life-Times-Jesus-Nazareth/dp/140006922X - Talks about the historical Jesus - helped me reconnect with Christianity in a way I didn’t have before

Reza Aslan - “No god but God” - https://www.amazon.com/god-but-God-Updated-Evolution/dp/0812982444 - Same as above, but in terms of Mohammad and Islam.  I’m starting to try to integrate the “truths” of our religions to try and form my own understanding

Thich Nhat Hanh - “Silence” - https://www.amazon.com/Silence-Power-Quiet-World-Noise-ebook/dp/B00MEIMCVG - Hanh’s a Vietnamese Buddhist monk - in this book he writes a lot about finding the beauty in silence, turning off the voice in our heads and lives, and living in peace.

Paulo Coelho - “The Alchemist” - https://www.amazon.com/Alchemist-Paulo-Coelho/dp/0062315005/ - Sort of a modern day exploration of “the path” similar to “Siddhartha.”  Very easy and a joy to read, good concepts of what it means to be on a “path”

Carlos Castaneda - "The Teachings of Don Juan" - The Teachings of Don Juan: A Yaqui Way of Knowledge https://www.amazon.com/dp/0671600419 - Started exploring more into shamanism and indigenous spiritual work; this book was a great intro and written in an entertaining and accessible way. 

Jean-Yves Leloup - “The Gospel of Mary” - https://www.amazon.com/Gospel-Mary-Magdalene-Jean-Yves-Leloup/dp/0892819111/ - The book that finally opened my eyes to the potentiality of the teachings of Christ.  This book, combined with the one below, have been truly transformative in my belief system and accepting humanity and the power of love beyond what I’ve found so far in my journey.

Jean-Yves Leloup - “The Gospel of Philip” - https://www.amazon.com/Gospel-Philip-Magdalene-Gnosis-Sacred/dp/1594770220 - Really begins to dissect and dive into the metaphysical teachings of Christ, exploring the concept of marriage, human union and sexuality, and the power contained within.  This book, combined with the one above, have radically changed my perception of The Church as dissimilar and antithetical to what Christ actually taught.

Ram Dass - “Be Love Now” - https://www.amazon.com/Be-Love-Now-Path-Heart/dp/0061961388 - A follow-up to “Be Here Now” - gets more into the esoteric side of things, his relationship with his Guru, enlightenment, enlightened beings, etc.

Riane Eisler - “The Chalice and the Blade” - https://www.amazon.com/Chalice-Blade-Our-History-Future/dp/0062502891 - An anthropoligical book analyzing the dominative vs cooperative models in the history and pre-history of society and how our roots have been co-opted and rewritten by the dominative model to entrap society into accepting a false truth of violence and dominance as “the way it is”

You gotta go check out the Protein Data Bank. It's pretty much *the* source for information on proteins. They have a "protein of the month" that they write about and explain all sorts of cool things about. <https://www.rcsb.org/\>

If you can get your hands on a copy buy "The machinery of Life" <https://www.amazon.com/Machinery-Life-David-S-Goodsell/dp/0387982736\> a book that's a really clear but accurate and detailed explanation of how proteins are made in cells, how DNA and proteins are related, and a lot of other concepts explained very clearly. It's like all the cool parts of what you learn in a college level biochemistry course, but way easier to understand and with less tests and math!

Also check out the game "Fold It" <https://fold.it/portal/\>. It's a game where you fold and design proteins. If you like that try to install a protein design software like Rosetta <https://www.rosettacommons.org/\>.

Lots of cities have shared bio-hacker-spaces where you can use their equipment and meet other people. When I was your age I got involved in robotics by getting involved with a local community group. I learned a lot and people helped me out and By the time I graduated from high-school I had designed robot parts that were sold around the world by the top robot part manufacturer in the US. You can do anything when you are your age and you are interested in something.

The number one thing I recommend is to keep being curious, spend every free moment you can exploring, and when you cant figure out how to do something (because you don't know how, don't have the money, or don't have the equipment) don't let that stop you. Just politely ask people for help and you might not always get a reply but often you will.

Read a lot, learn a lot, watch documentaries, and when you have an idea for a protein you could make email some college professors at whatever colleges are around you and ask if they can help you accomplish your goal. It's pretty likely they will help you.

​

PS: Here are some great places to start:

Gene design competition for students: http://2008.igem.org/Main_Page

Universal genes (instructions for making proteins) https://biobricks.org/freegenes/

(Pipetting robot) https://opentrons.com

(The best Protein/Biochem lectures) https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ZfsuDfui0oU

(Protein design program) https://els.comotion.uw.edu/express_license_technologies/rosetta

(Home made biology tools) https://pipettejockey.com/

(VR biology viewer) https://store.steampowered.com/app/493430/Nanome/

We can digest cellulose?! I've never researched the topic so I've got no idea. I've been under the impression that any digestion of "fiber" (such a vague term! I have a feeling it'll be going out of style in the coming decades) was through gut bacteria, but again, I've never really done any research on it. Good call on whether hydroxyproline/hydroxylysine can be utilized by gut bacteria. It wouldn't surprise me at all if they could.

Digestion isn't my forte either beyond knowing where things get broken down/absorbed. I've been meaning to hit up gut bacteria since they're becoming so popular topic these days.

Lotta respect for you too dude! And everyone here who contributes discussion. The more we talk things out and try to see where we might be overassuming/flat out wrong/missing information, the more we learn. That's the beauty of the scientific method, in my opinion. I've got high hopes for this sub.

Not sure if FFA/glucose radicals are handled by different antioxidants. That would definitely make sense, though, considering the unique antioxidant utilities of vitamins C and E each.

I have no idea if any nutrients are more bioavailable from plants than animals. Some would be exclusive (or nearly so) to one category, like taurine in animal products or beta-carotene in vegetable products. There are a lot of factors to consider in food bioavailability too, like cooking methods, usage of oils, cooking time, all that stuff.

> Perhaps physiological insulin resistance? And perhaps something like this hints that physiological insulin resistance isn't a good thing; you've reached a point of ketosis that is too "deep" and are pushing starvation. (Subtly referring back to the body's need to replenish aminos from diet).

I was wondering about that. I've yet to examine Mr. Dobromylskyj's hypothesis of physiological insulin resistance in depth.

> That would mean a lot for an all meat diet since it's argued that vitamin E is one of the nutrients that would be deficient.

Isn't that one of the better arguments against it? ;) I figure, hunter-gatherer societies have eaten varying proportions of foods derived from animals and plants, it's possible, even probable we would be okay going proportionately in either direction. Though, I'm more a fan of moderation... :)

I think my secret is a huge interest, which keeps me going in researching/learning about biochemistry. Even still I learn new things all the time, and ideas I previously had turn out to be wrong.. c'est la vie. I can't imagine taking up, say, mechanical engineering, I just don't have much an interest in it. Hopefully you get to take some kind of chemistry class! (Idk, most biochem classes I know of around here are higher-level/require several prerequisites). Really cool that you play the guitar btw. Piano player here.

Learning new/challenging material sure isn't easy but it's very rewarding. I started learning some basic cell biology by just looking at wiki pages and exhaustingly detailing every last definition that I didn't know like the back of my hand. It all expanded from there and I started doing the same with primary literature (what I often read here; bscly all research that's not a review). If you're looking for a textbook, I highly recommend Lehninger et al's Principles of Biochemistry. ^^^Pop ^^^me ^^^a ^^^pm ^^^if ^^^you ^^^want ^^^a ^^^PDF ^^^of ^^^the ^^^book

Not exactly concrete, but several years ago I read a book called The Cosmic Serpent: DNA and the Origins of Knowledge.

The name of this thread reminded me of it, and I came here to share the recommendation with anyone interested.

Long story short (please read the book if you're interested) an anthropologist goes into South America, connects with a disconnected remote tribe, begins to study their... well, everything.

For instance, Ayahuasca has an extremely complex preparation procedure, involving a root from one and bark of another plant, combinations of drying and heating, etc. and if the process is not properly completed, you can end up with a toxic brew instead of your hallucino-spirit drug.

When our author would ask how they came to such a complex and seemingly random process, the shaman told him "The plants told us."

He starts to take such answers at face value, and draws some very interesting and awesome theories. The book is a great read, especially for a skeptic.

Relevant: The paintings and art of the shaman this particular anthropologist was involved with were very, very clearly (in some instances) depictions of micro-biological constructs. Here a mitochondria, there a cell wall, here some proteins, etc.

The ultimate "theory" posed by the book involves the idea that DNA is a language commonly "spoke" by all living organisms, and that there are ways to tap into that level of language to communicate on a more literal level.

Not... concrete, but still very interesting, and scientific in nature. :)

Ernst Mayer, Jerry Coyne and Richard Dawkins have written some decent books broadly covering the evidence for evolution. Donald Prothero's Evolution: What the Fossils Say and Why It Matters fits into that general category, and does a good job of outlining the evidence for evolution as well, in particular from a paleontological perspective.




Astrobiologist / Paleontologist Peter Ward has written a ton of fantastic books. I'd start with Rare Earth, which outlines the Rare Earth hypothesis, ie complex life is likely rare in the universe. If you read Rare Earth, you'll come away with a better understanding of the abiotic factors which influence the evolution of life on Earth. If you end up enjoying Rare Earth, I'd highly recommend Ward's other books.




Terra, by paleontologist Michael Novacek describes the evolution of the modern biosphere, in particular from the Cretaceous onwards, and then discusses environmental change on a geological scale to modern environmental challenges facing humanity. It's one of those books which will change the way you think about the modern biosphere, and the evolution in the context ecosystems, as opposed to individual species.




Another book by a paleontologist is When Life Nearly Died: The Greatest Mass Extinction of All Time, looking at the Permian mass extinction, which was the most catastrophic mass extinction of the Phanerozoic wiping out 95%+ of all species. More focused on the geology than the other books I mentioned, so if you're not into geology you probably wont enjoy it so much.



Biochemist Nick Lane has written some great books. Life ascending would be a good one to start off with. Power, Sex, Suicide: Mitochondria and the Meaning of Life is really excellent as well.




The Origins of Life and the Universe is written by molecular biologist Paul Lurquin. It mostly focuses on the origin of life. It's pretty accessible for what it covers.




Another couple of books I would recommend to people looking for something more advanced are: Michael Lynch's Origins of Genome Architecture, which covers similar stuff to much of his research, although takes a much broader perspective. Genes in conflict is a pretty comprehensive treatment of selfish genetic elements. Fascinating read, although probably a bit heavy for most laypeople.

Finally there's a question that's my exact field.

Proteins are huge macromolecules made of a linear arrangement of amino acids that is folded in 3D. The one I'm studying is about 70,000Da, so about the mass of 70,000 hydrogen molecules. It's composed of ~609 amino acids, which are fairly complex molecules themselves. Here is an amino acid. Here's a short peptide sequence composed of 4 amino acids. This looks pretty simple, but imagine 600 in a row. There are 20 different "R" groups which makes it more complex. There are two angles that can rotate freely, phi (NH to alpha carbon) and psi (alpha carbon to carbonyl carbon). Diagram of these angles here. So you have a huge linear molecule that folds in hundreds of places and all the atoms can interact with each other.

To get a 3D image, a protein must be crystallized, meaning it has to from a regular lattice structure. This is very hard to do. You need to isolate your protein very well and have rather large quantities of it because you never know which solution will work. First you have to get it started (nucleation) and get additional proteins to join in. I won't get in to how this occurs but it often involves cat whiskers. It's pretty much an art. Then, once you have a crystal structure, you beam it with x-rays, and predict the structure by how the x-rays are diffracted. You often don't get a good "view" of what's on the inside of the protein. Here are 3 representations of a small and simple protein.

Folding@Home predicts the structure without having to do this long and difficult to achieve process. You have to account for favorable and unfavorable interactions and bond angles and are able to achieve a good estimation of the structure.

EDIT: If you're interested, here's a good 17 minute video on x-ray crystallization. I've been working towards crystallization of my protein for 5 months and still have a ways to go.

EDIT2: Reading more about F@H, I learned that it also aims to find insight in to how proteins fold. This is still a mystery to us. An unfolded protein has an astronomical number of possible conformations. Cyrus Levinthal calculated that if a completely unfolded protein is composed of 100 amino acids, there are 10^143 possible. If each conformation is "tried out" by a protein for a millisecond, it would take longer than the age of the universe to try them all. I'm sorry but I'm very busy tonight and can't get that deep into protein folding, but we do know that it starts with a nucleation (here it means you first form a very stable part of the protein) and then the the more unstable parts form but it is still largely a mystery. What makes it even tougher is that the most stable conformation is not always the native/active one. Also, Structure and Mechanism in Protein Science by Alan Fersht is a very good book for biochemists and is what I use as a desk reference.

I wanted to listen to part 2 before commenting.

I always love these dialogues. My particular fixation is with the collection of data, so this feeds my particular flavor of existence quite well.

As for content, this was my introduction to the term "pansychism" - even if I've previously been aware of the idea. So, thanks for that. I'm curious if you've read "The Cosmic Serpent" (https://www.amazon.com/Cosmic-Serpent-DNA-Origins-Knowledge/dp/0874779642)? It's an interesting panpsychic exploration of DNA instigated by an anthropologist's shamanic/psychedelic experience. Worth a read.

I'm also still digesting "neo-nihilism". Interesting idea, initially. Your conversation with Peter is a great example of why I've completely fallen in love with "psychedelic philosophy". Nothing is off limits, everything should be explored.

Thank you for bringing more of the exploratory spirit to us. Looking forward to more from you.

Edit: I LOVE your logo as well! Such a clean way to bring the yin/yang, forbidden fruit, and ouroboros out.

Thanks! :) That's a really good idea to wait until you are ready as mindset and intention matter quite a bit.

General Information:

/r/Ayahuasca

-http://forums.ayahuasca.com/

-good forum with general knowledge

-https://www.dmt-nexus.me/forum/
while it's mostly dmt centered, this is probably the best entheogen community online. Has some good writeups on Ayahuasca and DMT visuals are often pretty similar to Ayahuasca since it's the same chemical in most brews(n,n dmt). Breakthrough visuals are much more common on DMT but healing is rarer in my experience.

https://ayaadvisors.org/

Great review site for retreat centers. There are more in the US, especially if you look around.

Books:

The Cosmic Serpent

The Ayahuasca Test Pilot's Handbook

As for posts, this one from dmt nexus is a good primer:

https://www.dmt-nexus.me/forum/default.aspx?g=posts&t=8972


Hopefully that's enough to at least get the ball rolling. Feel free to reach out if you have any questions!

For which one? CRISPR? Well you won't be able to understand the details until you have a good grasp of molecular biology. But molecular biology itself is a huge area. I would like to give you recommendations but it's really hard with your interests so broad.

It is like asking for book recommendations on Linear Algebra: there are tons and some focus on numerical methods, others on eigenvalues, others on decomposition methods like SVD, others on applications in machine learning, etc.

Maybe start with something like this:

https://www.amazon.ca/gp/product/0815344325/ref=pd_lpo_sbs_dp_ss_1/187-9306447-5023949?pf_rd_m=A3DWYIK6Y9EEQB&pf_rd_s=lpo-top-stripe&pf_rd_r=0A3FAK9C4CRAFZQTEQ4H&pf_rd_t=201&pf_rd_p=1977604502&pf_rd_i=0815341059

or this

https://www.amazon.com/Molecular-Biology-Robert-Weaver/dp/0073525324/ref=sr_1_2?ie=UTF8&qid=1479421339&sr=8-2&keywords=Molecular+Biology%3A+Robert+Weaver

for molecular biology.

For introductory genetics, pretty much any undergraduate level biology or biochemistry textbook will help you understand the basics of transcription, translation, genes, heredity, etc. Once you have a thorough understanding of what a gene is, what a regulatory region is, what epigenetics is, what types of mutations occur etc. then you'll have a good idea of which specific questions to ask to explore a certain topic in more detail.

I would also spend time on the wikipedia pages and other sources reading about the different sequencing methods that are central to genetics. Look up Sanger sequencing and explore some of the next-generation-sequencing (NGS) techniques now available. Fully understanding these will also require knowledge of biochemistry, such as phosphodiester bonds, and basic biology techniques and physics such as electrophoresis and fluorescence.

Understanding and diving into CRISPR, genetic engineering, synthetic biology, etc. will require a thorough understanding of the above, and then more detailed knowledge on gene expression, how it is manipulated, about things like plasmids, retroviruses and their molecular machinery, etc.

Then there are people who develop algorithms for bioinformatics that probably know little to none of the above and don't need to for their day to day work; the answer is in general "it depends".

May I ask how you are beginning to skim the surface of ML? If you're reading methods papers or something, I could see how you could start to feel like it was all really esoteric. There are a lot of more applied journals and conferences out there, even for specific fields like biology. Maybe something in your field would be a good entry point?

There are tons of ML methods that are super generalizable-- not at all overly specific. At my work (biotech), people use off-the-shelf computer vision algorithms (segmentation, registration, etc.) all the time. They use clustering and classifiers as well. Classifiers in particular are super easy to use off-the-shelf. A lot of these tools have been incorporated into statisticians bags of tricks. Certain areas of ML really do feel like "new stats" to me.

Bayesian networks is another one that is pretty broadly applicable, and sees a lot of use in computational biology. E.g. inferring gene regulatory networks, modelling genetic diversity, etc. There are bioinformatics books out there that are chock full of ML-flavored algorithms; this one is a classic-- http://www.amazon.com/Biological-Sequence-Analysis-Probabilistic-Proteins/dp/0521629713 though I'm not sure it'd be quite up your alley for synthetic & systems bio.

Googled and found a couple conferences-- might be worth skimming the proceedings

http://mlsb.cc/

http://www.eccb14.org/program/workshops/mlsb

Molecular Biology of the cell - Great textbook to get you started. It is really comprehensive but not challenging to read. The diagrams are informative but not overbearing. The author clearly cares a great deal about the subject.

https://www.amazon.com/Molecular-Biology-Cell-Bruce-Alberts/dp/0815341059

Molecular Biology - Weaver - This one is nice because it keys in on many of the landmark experiments and scientists who contributed greatly to the field:

https://www.amazon.com/Molecular-Biology-Associate-College-Sciences/dp/0073525324/ref=sr_1_1?crid=1L89I1QHNC7HX&keywords=molecular+biology+weaver&qid=1571969517&sprefix=molecular+biology+weaver%2Caps%2C130&sr=8-1

If you want something smaller and more like a narrative, give Recombinant DNA: Genes and Genomes - A Short Course a try.

https://www.amazon.com/Recombinant-DNA-Genomes-Course-Edition/dp/0716728664

http://www.amazon.com/gp/aw/d/1439860971

I'd recommend buying and reading this book as it covers most of the basic as well as slightly niche techniques you will need during your time in a synthetic lab. This is particularly useful for learning how to set up efficient columns (how polar a solvent system to use, and how much silica to use for a given mass of crude material).

Specifically regarding yields, TLC is a great tool, both to check if a reaction has gone to completion (limiting reagent starting material present will inhibit yields) but also when using a separating funnel (say you are extracting into an organic solvent, you can TLC the organic layer after 4 extractions and if there is no product observed, then you know you won't have any material left in your aqueous layer).

It's always best to do reactions under nitrogen, and always make sure to use dry solvents (from a still or solvent purification system) when using moisture sensitive reagents e.g. NaH.

There are many other tips but they are reaction specific, but I will say the more time you spend in the lab, your yields will naturally increase as your skills improve (as long as the reaction allows it). Good luck!

The first overall source I'd look to for Ex-Sci is a textbook from Mcardle Katch & Katch it's a bit more user friendly for getting into the field.

Another good source for info is the American College of Sports Medicine (ACSM), and they have an Intro to Exercise Science as well. They're a bit more Science and Research Heavy, so they can be good or bad depending on the reader.

To get a good starter for musculature a very helpful one is Strength Training Anatomy This one is only a very colorful and visual source of where the different muscles are and how they're involved with different movements.

Supertraining was mentioned earlier in the thread, and is an Amazing source for how different training variables and methods affect the body.

I've found Exercise Metabolism very helpful in how the body uses different macro-nutrients in various intensities of physical activity.

One of my favorite books is also the Essentials of Strength and Conditioning from the National Strength and Conditioning Association (NSCA). It's more geared toward programming for athletic pursuits rather than overall physical fitness, but it still does give a great understanding of training variables and the body's adaptations to them.

EDIT: The subject of Kinesiology is touched on in most resources, but you may also want to get a standalone resource for this if you want to really understand the construction and functionality of the musculoskeletal system. The courses I've taken and research I've done have used a lot of different resources, so I don't have a single one personally to include here.

I'm sure someone with a quantum background could offer a better (and more accurate) explanation.

But as I understand it, the fluorescence lifetime (basically the time between when the fluorescent molecule absorbs a photon and emits a photon) takes a certain amount of time (around 1 to 10 nanoseconds for the dyes we like to label biomolecules with).

While that is a pretty short span of time, the movement of solvent molecules and motions of your protein are quicker. So between when your fluorescent molecule absorbs a photon and emits a photon, the surrounding atoms end up re-orienting and changing the local environment which effects the energy difference between the excited and ground states of the fluorescent molecule.

This change in energy levels follow a Gaussian looking distribution which results in a Gaussian looking spectra. So that's why instead of a a single wavelength emission profile you get a broad spectrum.

Now if your puzzled by the fact that the maxima of the different peaks in the graph you posted shift a little, that can be explained by other changes in the local environment, like the change in pH or the fact its attached to different proteins.

Bear in mind that all of this is off the top of my head, and I could be in the worng. If you're really curious I highly recommend you pick up a copy of "the fluorescence bible" it should sort you out in short order.

You're already on the right track getting started with Python, it is the most popular language currently. I would also highly recommend getting experience working in a linux environment, so either macOS or Linux, and getting comfortable working through the terminal. To round off your computational skills, I think that R would be a very good second language to learn. I'm currently using R more than Python for my work, it's much better to use when performing statistical analysis.

You should also try and get a good understanding of the biology behind the data you'll be working with. I think that THIS BOOK does a very good job at covering most concepts you're like to encounter in the field. It's what much of the biology portion of my graduate program was based upon.

Anything by Feynmann are great reads. For upper division instrumental analysis, spectroscopy, and quantum I wholly recommend QED: The Strange Theory of Light and Matter by Richard P. Feynman et al. It describes all the concepts in the book in layman's terms in a brilliant narrative of chemistry. I recommend it to anyone that wants to learn about the strangeness of physics and chemistry. It is easy to digest.

The Feynman Lectures on Physics, although pricey helped me survive physics (I have the paperbacks). It seems you can read the entirety online at that site.

If you choose to do a lot of organic chemistry laboratory work then Advanced Practical Organic Chemistry is a really great resource. It covers just about everything you need to know to be very competent and safe in the lab. I found a used copy of the second edition that has served me well. I don't know what has been updated in the third edition.

I agree with /u/lmo2th Pauling has written albeit old but definitive books on chemistry. Although it can be very difficult to read and knowledge of differential equations is required, Introduction to Quantum Mechanics with Applications to Chemistry by Linus Pauling et al. was the most succinct book on the nitty gritty math of QM I found.

I recently graduated with a B.S. in Chemistry, it was difficult, but I loved every minute I spent in the lab doing research and can't imagine doing anything else. Edit: QED and Feynmann Lectures are great reads for lower division classes. Save the second two for if you decide on chemistry.

I don't really want to comment on your postulates or discourage your thinking, but I would recommend the book, The Cosmic Serpent, in which an anthropologist examines shamanic traditions in the Amazon.

The question of how these shamans discovered the use of specific hundreds of assorted plants in the Amazon, out of the choice of tens of thousands, that cured, nourished, or tripped-out their people for millenia is central to the book, and doesn't require recourse to divine inspiration-- but it is perhaps as recondite and mysterious. It seems like a similar path of inquiry, and a wholly illuminating book of quality ethnobotany and anthropology.

Good luck in the search for truth... but it might not be wheat.

You even listen to Terrence McKenna?? Lol you'll be fine! I say go for it.

The thing about Terrence McKenna is that, like his brother Dennis said,if he's right about even 1% of his claims, that's a very important thing in the world.

I read a book once on ayahausca and DNA where this geneticist did an anthropology thing where he went and did ayahuasca with tribes in South America to scientifically prove a connection between ayahausca and DNA. It's a VERY interesting read. He does a great job at dumbing it down to laymen's terms so that someone who's not a scientist can read the book and understand it. Then the second half of the book is all works cited. Sources for every single claim he makes during the book. So if someone wanted to they could see proof for all the things he was claiming. He does great at not adding any of his personal beliefs into the book as well, it is purely scientific. It's called the cosmic serpent : Cosmic Serpent: DNA and the Origins of Knowledge https://www.amazon.com/dp/0874779642/ref=cm_sw_r_cp_apa_5QgMBbG18AQY8

Biology is nothing without chemistry so you need to know the basics of chemistry as well. My favourite book is the Color Atlas of Biochemistry by Jan Koolman, K. Rohm.

Another very useful book is Biochemistry (Lippincott Illustrated Reviews Series) by R. Harvey.

Many past participants recommend the Lehninger Principles of Biochemistry, however, this book may be too detailed for olympiads.

GENETICS TEXTBOOKS|

Genetics: Analysis and Principles (WCB Cell & Molecular Biology) by Brooker presents an experimental approach to understanding genetics and what I like most is that there are plenty of problems with explanations and answers. Another good textbook for genetics is Genetics: From Genes to Genomes, 5th edition by Hartwell. Genetics: From Genes to Genomes is a cutting-edge, introductory genetics text authored by an unparalleled author team, including Nobel Prize winner, Leland Hartwell.

GENERAL BIOLOGY TEXTBOOKS|

It is not a secret that the Bible of Biology is Campbell Biology (11th Edition). It is a good book and it covers all fundamental biology topics, nevertheless, some topics are discussed only concisely so some good books in addition to Campbell’s could come in handy.

HUMAN ANATOMY |TEXTBOOKS

For human body anatomy and physiology great books are Human Physiology: An Integrated Approach (7th Edition) by Dee Unglaub Silverthorn or  Vander’s Human Physiology. 

MOLECULAR AND CELL BIOLOGY|TEXTBOOKS

My top choice for molecular biology is Molecular Biology of the Cell by Bruce Alberts, et al. This is book is a big one, a hard one, an interesting one, a useful one. From my point of view, current and upcoming IBOs are focusing on molecular and cell biology because these fields are developing so rapidly and thus these branches of biology are perfect source for olympiad problems. So try to read it and understand it. If you want something cheaper than Alberts but equally useful, try Molecular Biology of the Cell, Fifth Edition: The Problems Book

PLANT BIOLOGY|TEXTBOOKS

Many past biology olympiad questions contain quite a lot of problems about plant anatomy and physiology. Thus, I suggest to read Stern’s Introductory Plant Biology.  Another amazing book for plant biology is Biology of Plants by Peter H. Raven, Ray F. Evert, Susan E. Eichhorn.

​

TEXTBOOKS FOR AND PROBLEM SOLVING|TECHNIQUES

Science competitions test a student’s level of knowledge, power of scientific reasoning, and analytical thinking outside of the regular school curriculum. A systematic approach and smart study regimen are both required to get good results in science competitions. This is where my book How To Prepare for the Biology Olympiad And Science Competitions by Martyna Petrulyte comes into the picture.

Here are some resources/tips that I've found helpful in my time working in a crystallography lab.

• Crystallography made Crystal Clear - good overview https://www.amazon.com/Crystallography-Made-Crystal-Clear-Macromolecular/dp/0125870736/ref=sr_1_1?ie=UTF8&qid=1536938710&sr=8-1&keywords=Crystallography+made+crystal+clear
  
• Tererese Bergfors website: http://xray.bmc.uu.se/terese/tutorials.html Good tutorials
  
• Look for Studier 2002- his formulations for Auto-induction media. Of interest is the formulation for PASM-5052 should you need to do experimental phasing via Selenomet labeling. As a side note, always look up the percent sequence identity of your protein to its homologs in the PDB. If its below 40%, definitely plan to do experimental phasing. Even at that, some labs have started hopping straight to expressing and crystallizing Selenomethionine labeled protein and collecting on the selenium edge from the get-go so that they hedge their bets on phasing. If doing experimental phasing, always collect until your crystal is dead dead dead.
  
• Most common issue with crystallization in my experience is a sample prep issue. This paper was very helpful to me when troubleshooting protein prep quality issues. http://dx.doi.org/10.1016/j.febslet.2013.10.044 One of my proteins was aggregating on the hours-days timescale. Don't neglect the utility of SEC, even if you see a single band on an SDS gel, you may have a mixture of oligomeric states which can only be detected by looking at the chromatogram from an SEC run.
  
• Look at the drops that do crystallize, then look at the neighbors in the same tray that don't have crystals. These observations can make it easier to figure out when you're close to the right crystallization conditions.
  
• High purity reagents- It's 2 O'clock in the morning, what is the purity of your Tween 20? 40%....40 fucking %. This is from Sigma aldrich, not some po dunk little chemical firm. Document your manufacturer if you need to use a detergent or reagent with purity this low. Regardless, document your fucking manufacturers of your reagents. One of the grad students in my lab was using TCEP and even though the purity was fairly high, a change of manufacturer stopped his protein from crystallizing. We also had a similar incident with a syringe filter manufacturer change.
  
• Submit samples for High-throughput screening at multiple concentrations, also recommended is to document the buffer your protein is in and try multiple different buffers so long as you get a clean chromatogram from SEC. Sometimes one buffer system works better than another for getting good quality crystals.
  
• Generally if possible, avoid glycerol. If your protein is having aggregation issues due to hydrophobic interactions, use a high-purity detergent like CHAPS, or n-Octyl-β-D-Glucopyranoside, or even sometimes an organic solvent like DMSO or isopropanol. All of the above mentioned compounds are the most cost-effective in my experience.
  
• Don't neglect the role of ligands. Sometimes you need to add a ligand or product to lock down the conformation.
  
• Don't neglect activity assays to make sure your sample preps are producing active protein.
  
• Don't count on an NMR structure to phase a crystal structure. I made this mistake, same protein, identical sequence, unable to phase with molecular replacement. I ultimately had to do a SAD experiment to phase.
  
• If your protein is badly behaved, you can try to rescue it with a maltose binding protein tag or a SUMO tag, etc. Sometimes they're helpful.
  
• DNA-binding proteins are often unstable in low salt when not bound to their target DNA sequence. Try binding the protein to its target DNA sequence then buffer exchanging into a low salt buffer.
  
• Seeding can sometimes be helpful.
  
• Make sure your sample purity is very high, the higher the better. Heterogeneity will fuck you on diffraction.
  
• Don't judge a book by its cover. Some crystals are ugly and diffract beautifully, others look beautiful and diffract terribly. I had these beautiful hexagonal crystals- no diffraction. In contrast, I had these plates that I expected nothing of that diffracted out to 1.7Angstroms.
  
• Common issue that can stop you from phasing is processing in the incorrect space group.
  
• Don't bother with HKL-2000 or HKL-3000. I strongly prefer XDS for data processing as it doesn't fail silently. There was a crystal dataset I was working on that had strong space group ambiguity and HKL-2k just wouldn't process it. XDS gave me enough feedback I was able to correctly diagnose and correct the issue. XDS is command line based but it gives you a lot more control and feedback.
  
• Get cozy with Phenix and Coot.
  
  I hope this helps. Let me know if you have any questions.

I'll stick to recommending science communication books (those that don't require a deep background on biological concepts):

• On the Origin of Species by Means of Natural Selection - Charles Darwin, bonus points if you can get a 1st edition reprint (before his colleagues made him change a lot of important things); it is a must-read but it might need quite some time to truly understand it, it is a heavy read.
  
  
• A lot of people recommend the Selfish Gene by Richard Dawkins but that one is one of his most controversial books and if you decide to read it, you should take everything with a pinch of salt; for Dawkins I prefer to recommend the Greatest Show on Earth: The Evidence for Evolution and the Blind Watchmaker: Why the Evidence of Evolution Reveals a Universe without Design. Just beware of Dawkins, he's a little dogmatic in his approach.
  
  
• The Dialectical Biologist - Richard Levins & Richard Lewontin.
  
  
• The Structure of Scientific Revolutions - Thomas Kuhn, this one will change forever your conception of science as a whole.
  
  
• The Red Queen: Sex and the Evolution of Human Nature - Matt Ridley.
  
  
• Wonderful Life: The Burgess Shale and the Nature of History, and the Panda's Thumb: More Reflections in Natural History - Stephen J. Gould.
  
  
• The Ghosts of Evolution: Non-sensical Fruit, Missing Partners, and Other Ecological Anachronisms - Connie Barlow.
  
  
• Are We Smart Enough to Know How Smart Animals Are? - Frans de Waal, this one is about animal cognition but has an incredible underline of all the deficiencies and prejudges on science.
  
  
• Microbe Hunters - Paul de Kruif.
  
  
• Symbiotic Planet: A New Look at Evolution, and What is Life? - Lynn Margulis.
  
  
• The Demon-Haunted World: Science as a Candle in the Dark - Carl Sagan & Ann Druyan.
  
  
• A Short Story of Nearly Everything - Bill Bryson.
  
  ---
  
  For books that everyone studying biology ends up reading, my candidate would be Lehninger's Principles of Biochemistry, by Nelson & Cox but that's a textbook.

The Epigenetics Revolution looks suuuper interesting, and since I'm going back to finish my undergrad in genetics soon it would be nice to read some (mildly) relevant but still interesting stuff! for science!


The Encyclopedia of Early Earth looks like it has some interesting art in it. for art!


Thanks for the contests!

Evolutionary genomics/genetics, population/quantitative genetics. A quick google search will get you started. Fair amount of math, mostly statistics, a bit of Taylor rule stuff. The classics are still highly regarded (Fisher, Haldane, Wright, Falconer). [Here] (https://www.gnxp.com/WordPress/2017/06/27/why-you-should-learn-some-population-genetics/) is a good starter pack compiled by someone who knows what he's talking about.

Re: 'survival of the stable' Addy Pross put forth a theory of biogenesis that roughly parallel's the idea in his [What is Life? How Chemistry Becomes Biology] (https://www.amazon.com/What-Life-Chemistry-Becomes-Biology/dp/1522693009). Basically it's a theory of chemical kinetics as a precursor to biological replication. It's a slightly paradoxical take on stability, what he calls KDS (kinetic dynamic stability). The higher a reagent's rate of reactivity, the more products it results in. You can probably guess how he makes the connections to evolution. Not super convincing imo but an interesting read. Much better is Nick Lane's newest book,[The Vital Question] (https://www.amazon.com/Vital-Question-Evolution-Origins-Complex/dp/0393352978/ref=sr_1_1?s=books&ie=UTF8&qid=1527312251&sr=1-1&keywords=nick+lane&dpID=412x3ysIEeL&preST=_SY291_BO1,204,203,200_QL40_&dpSrc=srch)--no math involved but makes for rough sledding unless you know at least some orgo/biochem.

Care to preview a bit of the roadmap we'll be taking in the series helpsypooo?

Biochemistry was absolutely terrible. That was the hardest I worked in undergrad and the happiest I ever was to receive a passing grade. We had a similar set up where there were three or four tests and that made up the entirety of the grade for the class. Just to reiterate what others have said: CASPA will average the two grades. No way around that. Don't let that get you down though. Do well when you retake the class and do well in your other science classes and it should be fine. I would definitely look at taking other high level biology classes to demonstrate you can do well in higher level academics. Biochemistry for Dummies was actually really helpful. https://www.amazon.com/Biochemistry-Dummies-John-T-Moore/dp/1118021746 Khan Academy was also really helpful. They don't have a biochemistry topic but they do have a section for MCAT prep which covers a lot of the topics presented in biochemistry. https://www.khanacademy.org/test-prep/mcat/biomolecules

I had to withdraw from A&P and had to retake a psych class. Nothing was mentioned about my grades during my interview for PA school. Best of luck to you.

Crystallography Made Crystal Clear is a fantastic resource for learning the theory behind protein crystallography and structure solution. I used it to learn when I was starting out and I still consult it at times.

Crystallography Made Crystal Clear: A Guide for Users of Macromolecular Models (Complementary Science) https://www.amazon.com/dp/0125870736/ref=cm_sw_r_cp_api_Rp9MBb4PTEANT

Good luck!


Beyond this, I’ll add that there’s really no substitute for doing this hands on and learning from other students/postdocs in the lab. Crystallization feels like black magic a lot of the time, so the theory only gets you so far. Most of the learning really happens as you go along.

> biologically pre-disposed (for lack of a better phrase) to be good candidates for therapies like cbt and dbt?

Basically, yes. It appears the majority of people it is very helpful. However, some people do not respond at all. There (currently) appears to be no rhyme or reason behind that. But we (more or less) know there is no physiological reason (fMRI or something can't tell us someone wont respond).

>Could you suggest an introductory text for someone with a basic understanding of the brain?

Honestly, not really. I don't pick the textbooks the undergrads/1st years read :P Lehninger Principles of Biochemistry is good for getting a firm footing for the biochemical pathways and such.
Basic Clinical Neuroscience is a good foundation textbook, but I can't remember how much biochem you need to understand it. Molecular Biology of the Cell is another good intro text to molecular biology, if that's what you're in to.
I've been a research assistant, not a teaching assistant for the past decade (oh my god, I'm old lol).

edit: Also if you didn't see it before, see also the edit in my previous post.

I took a chemical and synthetic biology class last semester, we used a textbook called The Organic Chemistry of Biological Pathways. It was pretty good but I feel like it relied on you having a pretty good organic background.

I would start with a basic biology book like Campbell's Biology. It will hit the basic level for most topics in biology, give a base knowledge of the biochemistry and metabolism as well as an overview. For systems, depending on what specifically you're interested in, I would start with The Molecular Biology of the Cell by Alberts and Johnson. It will give you a really good overview of cell biology and cell signaling. I know a lot of systems people are working on cell signaling and pathway modeling. Is there something specifically that you're interested in? I may be able to recommend more specific books for you.

I'm a second-year grad student in genetics/genomics, and these are the resources I go to for those oh-crap-I've-never-had-that-class moments:

This may be more than you want to spend (~$70), but Lynch has a really good book that details many of genomic elements and how they may have evolved. He assumes the reader generally understands transcription/translation, but the book isn't too technical.

If you have access from a company or university, Nature Reviews Genetics has reviews aimed at general scientific audiences for just about anything genetics/genomics related.

And, honestly, most Wikipedia pages for these kinds of topics have pretty reliable information as a first pass.

Indeed we can. http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Population_inversion

In particular you might be interested in http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Population_inversion#Creating_a_population_inversion.

and

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Time-resolved_spectroscopy#Transient-absorption_spectroscopy

Other resources that are extremely helpful are:

http://www.amazon.com/Principles-Fluorescence-Spectroscopy-Joseph-Lakowicz/dp/0387312781

If you really want to get into more advance topics in lasers, a book on non-linear optics is very helpful. I am drawing a blank right now on a good book. I will try to post a book tomorrow in the morning if I remember.

Edit: Looks like someone else posted a link for a Non-linear optics book.

• [Introduction to Human Nutrition] (https://www.amazon.com/dp/1405168072/ref=rdr_ext_sb_ti_hist_1) is a very good book to get started with if you have a solid biochemical background
  
  
• If you need to get some knowledge about biochemistry first I recommend reading Biochemistry for Dummies which is ok for non-professionals to read. One of the best Biochemistry books is Lehninger, Biochemistry, but it is very pricey
  
  Nutrition is mostly about biochemistry. So I'd recommend you reading some biochemistry books instead of nutrition based ones. Once you have a solid knowledge of biochemistry you'll be able to understand nutrition without a problem.

Since you didn't say what exactly you wanted a source for, and just told me to shut up, I'm not sure what exactly you want me to provide. There are a lot of physiology and biochemistry texts to which I can refer you if you'd like to read up on fructose, insulin, and leptin, as these are basic physiological principles. Boron and Boulpaep's Medical Physiology and Lehninger's Principles of Biochemistry are good ones. The nutrition information is also pretty basic. Here's a list of the fructose content of fruits and here's an article from the American Journal of Nutrition discussing the different forms of HFCS, its chemistry, and some of the science around it.

As for the chemistry of fructose as it relates to HFCS, here is a good article from the journal Nutrition and Metabolism, Fructose metabolism in humans – what isotopic tracer studies tell us, that gives a really nice overview of the physiology and biochemistry of fructose. It also does a review of the literature surrounding the purported role that HFCS plays in the obesity problem in the western world. However, one might be inclined to dismiss the article, as it is written by scientists employed by ADM. It's fair to raise this as a possible conflict of interest for the review part of the article. The first part, though, that discusses fructose metabolism, is "morally neutral" -- it doesn't say anything good or bad about fructose, just what happens to it and what they learned from tracer studies.

Given that one could question the review part of the previous article, here are a few other recent articles about fructose and HFCS:

A meta-analysis from 2014 that found no link between increased consumption of sugar of any kind and non-alcoholic liver disease: https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pmc/articles/PMC4135494/

A double-blind study from 2015 that interestingly found that ingestion of fructose or sucrose-sweetened beverages led to increased food consumption, but that ingestion of aspartame-sweetened beverages did not lead to excess food consumption: https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pmc/articles/PMC4658464/

The title of this randomized, double blind study from 2016 speaks for itself: Fructose Containing Sugars at Normal Levels of Consumption Do Not Effect Adversely Components of the Metabolic Syndrome and Risk Factors for Cardiovascular Disease

To be fair, there are a lot of articles on PubMed that say things like, "HFCS linked to arthritis/bronchitis/CVD/etc." The reason I didn't link those was not because they didn't suit my narrative -- notice I did link a study that found that people who consumed HFCS and sucrose-sweetened beverages ate more food. No, the reason I didn't link them was because I didn't think they were good studies because they couldn't establish HFCS as the causative factor. Was it the fructose, or just sugar in general? Or was it obesity? Conditions associated with obesity? There were too many confounders for which the studies didn't control, and they need to be repeated with better controls before they can be taken seriously.

Shall I give more links? Or am I to "shut up now?"

The Epigenetics Revolution. A book about genetics and molecular bio, rather than biochemistry, but this is a pretty good book.

You don't exactly sound like a complete layman though, so I say there's nothing wrong with picking up a textbook like Stryer and seeing which topics interest you!

Mechanisms? You're talking about selection, mutation, genetic drift, gene expression/regulatory evolution, chromosomal inversions/deletions/translocations, TE activity, gene duplication, chromosomal duplication, codon bias, and more. The field is massively broad and encompasses everything from population genetics, to molecular biology, to genomics, to phylogenetics/molecular evolution.

I'm a evolutionary genetics PhD, and there's no review broad enough to cover it all. Maybe narrow it down a bit? Popular(ish) science books may be the thing you're looking for.

For example, this book by Michael Lynch would be a good start. He loves to look at the big picture stuff and tends towards comparative evolutionary genomics. For the soap-opera-like beginnings to population genetics (which really is the central theoretical core of evolutionary genetics), this book by William Provine is an entertaining and enlightening read.

Edit: Gene duplication is a favourite of mine: These authors are good for this review article. I haven't read it myself yet (I'm at home and cannot access it) but if it's published in Nature Reviews Genetics then it's probably very high quality.

Google Scholar is your friend. Search for "gene duplication review" and narrow by year to include more up-to-date. You can use the keywords at the start of my post to get searching.

This is a good answer and true in most forms of life. But as a microbiologist, I need to jump in and point out that prokaryotes do not have histones. The concept is the same, just without those extra proteins for neatly packaging the DNA.

For further reading try Molecular Genetics of Bacteria by Snyder/Champness (Amazon link to most recent version which now has other authors added: https://www.amazon.com/Molecular-Genetics-Bacteria-Larry-Snyder/dp/1555816274 ). This is a comprehensive text that focuses on prokaryotic DNA. Try asking your library for a copy or if you are a teacher/TA buy your own as a good reference text!

There's actually a good book on Ayahuasca, by an anthropologist named Jeremy Narby, called The Cosmic Serpent. I read it a few years back, and it's pretty entertaining, as well as informative.

I've taken part in several Ayahuasca ceremonies. The main psychoactive ingredient in ayahuasca is a vine which contains DMT. Other ingredients contain MAO Inhibitors which make it possible for the effects of the DMT to be effective when eaten. The stuff taste vial, you puke a ton. It's different than smoking DMT, it lasts longer like a mushroom trip. It's taken in a ceremony, usually with others. There are people to help you, and traditional music and signing involved. Some wonderful and at times challenging experiences. good book on the topic: http://www.amazon.com/Cosmic-Serpent-DNA-Origins-Knowledge/dp/0874779642

>I was making the case which you can read in the studies above that OspA in desseminated infection can induce immunosupression through indirect mechanisms.

Which as I pointed out a very long time ago is pretty meaningless since OspA is expressed in the tick stage.

>Question, can not TLR2 agonists supress immune system?

No.

>Can not OspA interfere with the response of lymphocytes to proliferative stimuli including a blocking of cell cycle phase progression?

According to a single paper that was never cited and only used purified lymphocytes, maybe. But the immune system works together. Without T cells and macrophages together that's not very useful information.

>Yeah, I'm interested! What books do you recommend?

Janeway's [Immunobiology] (https://www.amazon.com/Janeways-Immunobiology-Immune-System-Janeway/dp/0815342438/ref=sr_1_1?ie=UTF8&qid=1505745700&sr=8-1&keywords=immunobiology+janeway+8th+edition) has been the gold standard for years. David White's [The Physiology and Biochemistry of Prokaryotes ] (https://www.amazon.com/Physiology-Biochemistry-Prokaryotes-David-White/dp/019539304X) and [Molecular Genetics of Bacteria] (https://www.amazon.com/Molecular-Genetics-Bacteria-Larry-Snyder/dp/1555816274/ref=sr_1_1?s=books&ie=UTF8&qid=1505745797&sr=1-1&keywords=molecular+genetics+of+bacteria) are the best microbiology references. For something more specific, ASM Press periodically puts out books on specific groups of bacteria.

I recommend this book. I read it a while back and remember it having some good information on Ayahausca and its tribal uses. I'm pretty sure that the author also tries it and gives his report.

You should start reading The Cosmic Serpent: DNA and the Origins of Knowledge if you haven't already. It's sitting in my "to read" pile, but if my journey took me in the direction that your experience seems to suggest, I can guarantee I'd be fast-tracking it to the top of the pile.

If you're unfamiliar with Jeremy Narby, check out this interview over at Deoxy. I have a feeling some of his notions might compliment your own.

Here are my top three textbook choices:

This is a great book for how to actually do organometallic syntheses. I've followed several procedures in the book, and they work well / are quite descriptive.

I''ve taken two organometallic courses that use Crabtree. So I think this is a great book to learn organometallics. Definitely more organometallic than Miessler and Tarr.

A few of my friends have the new Hartwig book which looks awesome. I haven't read it yet, but in my opinion its going to surpass Crabtree as the textbook of choice for organometallics classes in the next few years.

Everyone should read the Cosmic Serpent. It's a little boring in the middle but don't give up halfway through. Definitely an amazing book.

For a general overview of the history of traditional herbal medicine in the West, I recommend Barbara Griggs' book, Green Pharmacy: The History and Evolution of Western Herbal Medicine.

For traditional shamanic, magical use of herbal medicinal plants, I suggest you look into the Native American tradition(s). If you are looking for something in the area of psychedelics, I can recommend one book I liked: Cosmic Serpent: DNA and the Origins of Knowledge

For a bend towards energy medicine and the inner practice of herbalism, see Matthew Wood's books, for example The Practice of Traditional Western Herbalism: Basic Doctrine, Energetics, and Classification.

LMAO

>Peterson:

>I read The Cosmic Serpent, by Jeremy Narby (https://amzn.to/2J2IklU) and found it interesting. It's far from obvious what people can and can't see under the influence of psychedelics. And I didn't "claim" anything. I put forward a tentative hypothesis. That is by no means a claim. If you have a better idea, put it forward.

>/u/BBDG

>From your lecture: ?>https://twitter.com/zei_nabq/status/997575537089564672/video/1

>I really believe that's a representation of DNA

Oh right. I slightly misunderstood what you were looking for.

This may or may not be helpful but here's another recommendation:

https://www.amazon.com/Biological-Sequence-Analysis-Probabilistic-Proteins/dp/0521629713

While this book is pretty old and does not cover newer technologies and algorithms, I found it extremely helpful in understanding biological principles related to genetics and molecular evolution.

In this genomics era, we know so much more than just genetics now of course. But I mostly learned about genomics by reading tons of review papers, not a textbook. Once you study a bit on basic biology, I think reading review papers is the way to go if you want to delve into a more specific topic.

I like Voet & Voet for introductory general biochemistry.

Principles of Physical Biochemistry is a good selection for an introduction to biophysical chemistry. You will need a sound foundation in physical chemistry to make the most out of this book, though.

Alan Fersht's Structure and Mechanism in Protein Science is another good choice, especially if you want to firm up your understanding of the essentials of enzymology and protein folding.

I'd recommend reading the Cosmic Serpent ( http://www.amazon.com/The-Cosmic-Serpent-Origins-Knowledge/dp/0874779642). Narby seems to think that psychedelics allowed native people to have direct access to DNA and that it is represented in art as two intertwined serpents. Very entertaining and interesting.

Did you take biochem too? Nevertheless if you did good you should enjoy this one: https://www.amazon.ca/Organic-Chemistry-Biological-Pathways-Second/dp/193622156X

It is good because if you understand how we metabolize anything we eat then you'd have no issue identifying bs from certain claims. Like "fructose is better than sucrose" or "fatty acids are unhealthy" or "you should avoid carbs altogether". It also helps understanding diabetes or other similar pathologies, but I'm sure you kno that already.

Google around, find websites for university degree programs in biology, biochemistry, genetics, etc., and mine the syllabi for textbooks that are used. That would probably give you a decent seed list.

Read popular books for lay-people on biohacking and related topics, like Biopunk, Frankenstein's Cat, Regenesis, Life at the Speed of Light, A Crack in Creation, etc., and then use Google / Wikipedia to drill down on the topics you find discussed there.

One other book that has been recommended to me by actual experts from our local biohacking group is Molecular Biology of the Cell

Also.. It's fully possible for humans to create a mix that stops aging in whatever age someone is in? In theory?

I don't think anybody knows the answer to that yet.

Maybe? This is something I've learned through experience, observation and meditation. But a lot of things will elaborate this principle. First thing that comes to mind is the four forces in physics, recently being understood as one single force that has settled into four discreet manifestations. Thats kinda hard to wrap your head around without a lot of physics knowledge though.

However, there is a book called The Cosmic Serpent that has at least one chapter that is illuminating on the subject. I've only read the bits on Google Books though.

The pretentious part of me wanted to say "only the book that is the universe," but thankfully good taste prevailed.

I kept them (the engineering ones at least). At great personal cost though.

Every now and then I hit one or two of the key upper level books specially within heat transfer, fluids, thermo, and process design. I even had to break out a math book once or twice. But, I work a design job where such references will pop up. If I was running a process or running a plant I doubt I would have had the need.

Also, your text books aren't worth NEARLY what you think they are... new editions pop up all the times, and even a year or two will render their value on the market to "pretty low" despite the content of course being super useful.

Anyways... I kept mine, and my wife made me build a large built in bookshelf to house them and then put me on a book in/book out diet because I have so many god damn books. I actually have two degrees (Biochemistry too) and I had all my biochem books. Even though I have ZERO need for them, getting rid of MOST of them was REALLY hard, despite the information not even being accurate anymore (degree was in 2003).

Now my Lehninger's Biochemistry book (https://www.amazon.com/Lehninger-Principles-Biochemistry-David-Nelson/dp/1464126119/) and Albert's The Cell (https://www.amazon.com/Molecular-Biology-Sixth-Bruce-Alberts/dp/0815344325/) are used as "rug flatteners" for our area rugs because they are so heavy.

She's a vet... and one of the first things she did was part with all her vet books except for a few.

From the Machinery Of Life by David S Goodsell. Great book easy for any audience!

http://www.amazon.com/The-Machinery-Life-David-Goodsell/dp/0387982736

My one line advice: take an introductory molecular biology course or genetics course.

If you have a summer, do this:

Read "The 8th Day of Creation" if you want to learn the whole of molecular biology's roots in one book. It is written on the college-educated "lay" reader level and details the history vividly.

Then check out and admire some websites:

genome.ucsc.edu

wormbase.org

flybase.org

start messing around with it and get a feel for the scope of it. Others can add more.

Then, there are some textbooks. I know people who like this one

If you want actual science behind it I highly recommend reading an actual book students are taught from: Leninnger Principles of Biochemistry by) (this are clean, non-affiliate links). You should be able to borrow it from the library, any edition should do.

Specifically the chapter on human metabolism, and pay attention to what is a set-point.

This is all not new, it has been known for ages. Dr Fungs books started popularizing this knowledge recently, thumbs up to him for that

Anyone here read The Cosmic Serpent? Documented strangeness which validates what people here are saying.

I've randonauted a few times and found it worthwhile as a way to uncover some insights into my psyche. Same for dreaming. Last night I dreamt I was the new owner of a pet store. Workers were showing me the ropes. They said I had to open the store at 6 a.m. so I could open the drapes. Then they showed me a bunch of other stuff like making dog prints of their poop. And something about a parrot wherein I was advised to wear gloves because they can bite. Lots to unpack here...

great place to start

It's pretty neat what you get out of half a semester of graduate level exercise physiology

If you want to browse widely used genomic/bioinformatic resources then look at NCBI, Ensembl, and UCSC.

If you want to try some bioinformatics problems, then see Rosalind.

If you want to learn biology, then buy textbooks on genetics/molecular biology. There are many, I recommend [this] (https://www.amazon.com/Human-Evolutionary-Genetics-Origins-Peoples/dp/0815341857) for human evolution.

If you want to learn about methods and sequence analysis, then [Biological Sequence Analysis] (https://www.amazon.com/Biological-Sequence-Analysis-Probabilistic-Proteins/dp/0521629713) is excellent.

If you want to explore widely used bioinformatics tools, then start with BLAST if you don't know it already.

This is the book I used and I really liked it. Has lots of trends and explains things in easy to follow terms.

http://www.amazon.com/Organometallic-Chemistry-Transition-Metals/dp/0470257628

A book that you may be interested in is called 'The Cosmic Serpent: DNA and the Origins of Knowledge.' It's a really good read and not too long. https://www.amazon.com/Cosmic-Serpent-DNA-Origins-Knowledge/dp/0874779642

For pleasure:

• The Disappearing Spoon
  
• Periodic Tales
  
• Stuff Matters
  
• Molecules of Murder
  
• The Elements of Murder
  
• The Elements
  
• Molecules
  
• Molecules that Changed the World
  
• The Chemistry Book
  
  Undergraduate
  
  
• Organic:
  Organic Chemistry as a Second Language, The art of writing reasonable organic reaction mechanisms
  
  
• Inorganic: Inorganic Chemistry, Molecular Symmetry and Group Theory
  
  
• Analytical: Principles of Instrumental Anlsysis, Fundamentals of Analytical Chemistry
  
  Graduate
  
  
• Organic: Advanced Practical Organic Chemistry, March's Advanced Organic Chemistry, Greene's Protective Groups in Organic Synthesis, Purification of Laboratory Chemicals, Strategic Applications of Named Reactions in Organic Synthesis
  
• Inorganic: Advanced Inorganic Chemistry

Inner Paths to Outer Space by Strassman and three others
http://www.amazon.com/Inner-Paths-Outer-Space-Psychedelics/dp/159477224X
The Cosmic Serpent by Jeremy Narby
http://www.amazon.com/Cosmic-Serpent-DNA-Origins-Knowledge/dp/0874779642/ref=sr_1_1?ie=UTF8&s=books&qid=1302588552&sr=1-1
Astrothelogy and Shamanism by Andrew Rutajit asd Jan Irvin
http://www.amazon.com/Astrotheology-Shamanism-Christianitys-Revolutionary-Reinterpretation/dp/1439222436/ref=sr_1_1?ie=UTF8&s=books&qid=1302588605&sr=1-1
The Sacred Mushroom and the Cross by John Marco Allegro
http://www.amazon.com/Sacred-Mushroom-Cross-Christianity-fertility/dp/0982556276/ref=sr_1_3?ie=UTF8&s=books&qid=1302588605&sr=1-3
these guys have some good interviews and a movie called "The Pharmacratic Inquisition" for free on the site
http://www.gnosticmedia.com/

For the basics, I still think this is one of the best.

https://www.amazon.com/Biological-Sequence-Analysis-Probabilistic-Proteins/dp/0521629713

https://www.amazon.com/gp/aw/d/0815344325/ref=dp_ob_neva_mobile

Best book ever on the subject.

Funny enough, Nick Lane just released a book, The Vital Question, on the subject of the possibility of life beginning and evolving in these hydrothermal vents.

It's an archetype in the human brain. I've seen snakes on different psychedelic substances, most notably ayahuasca.

Jeremy Narby wrote a very interesting book about snake symbolism, psychedelics and DNA called 'The Cosmic Serpect'. Highly recommended.
http://www.amazon.com/The-Cosmic-Serpent-Origins-Knowledge/dp/0874779642

Biological Sequence Analysis is a good book to have in your library as well.

I found The Epigenetics Revolution to be both informative yet accessible. Would strongly recommend.

Campell Biology is generally the number one go to for intro bio. My AP class, and intro class in college used it.

https://www.amazon.com/Campbell-Biology-10th-Jane-Reece/dp/0321775651

For more molecular stuff, molecular biology of the cell is fairly popular:

https://www.amazon.com/Molecular-Biology-Cell-Bruce-Alberts/dp/0815344325/ref=pd_lpo_sbs_14_t_0?_encoding=UTF8&psc=1&refRID=D9ZRY4BKB4ECZ2PMQRRJ

The Cosmic Serpent: DNA and the Origins of Knowledge

A MUST read for anyone who has ever partaken :)

The Cosmic Serpent is a good book on the subject.
http://www.amazon.com/The-Cosmic-Serpent-Origins-Knowledge/dp/0874779642

"Biological sequence analysis" by Durbin, Eddy, Krogh and Mitchison:
https://www.amazon.com/Biological-Sequence-Analysis-Probabilistic-Proteins/dp/0521629713

also this paper by Krogh et al. might be useful:
https://pdfs.semanticscholar.org/0f88/43d140cb3b3c14afdbe0486b27d2f1016eb3.pdf

and this HMM tutorial by Rabiner:
http://www.ece.ucsb.edu/Faculty/Rabiner/ece259/Reprints/tutorial%20on%20hmm%20and%20applications.pdf

I recommend also reading Jeremy Narby's book "The Cosmic Serpent: DNA and the Origins of Knowledge."

Courses:

Take population genetics and computational biology. Population genetics focuses on dynamics of allele frequencies in different populations. Computational biology is anything from simulating networks of biochemical reactions to identifying patterns in DNA using hidden markov models.


Books:

http://www.amazon.com/Introduction-Systems-Biology-Mathematical-Computational/dp/1584886420/ref=sr_1_1?ie=UTF8&qid=1299531700&sr=8-1

http://www.amazon.com/Biological-Sequence-Analysis-Probabilistic-Proteins/dp/0521629713/ref=sr_1_1?s=books&ie=UTF8&qid=1299531747&sr=1-1

Them, plus Janeway's Immunobiology, Carey and Sundberg's Advanced Organic Chemistry part A and part B, Anslyn's PhysOrg, Ptashne's A Genetic Switch, Gilbert's Developmental Biology, Fersht's Structure and Mechanism in Protein Science and the NEB Catalog form a reference shelf for Biochem/Chemical Biology that I don't suspect will need updating for another decade or two.

EDIT: Except, of course, for switching out the NEB catalog every year for the new edition.

While I haven't read this one, it purports to answer some of these questions

https://www.amazon.com/Cosmic-Serpent-DNA-Origins-Knowledge/dp/0874779642

(it does seem far fetched, although listening to the video in the OP, I'm having trouble finding where JP mentioned DNA specifically... Can anyone please link hr:mn:sc?)

The best textbook I've had during my three years as a biochem/molecular bio major was Lehninger Principles of Biochemistry, hands down. Molecular Biology of the Cell was also decent, but not as clearly laid out in my opinion.

> Lets look at the source on the website. "From Lehningher principles of Biochemistry..." Originally published: 1970. So a source 47 years old. That makes sense, no chance science has advanced one iota in half a fucking century.

The seventh addition was published in 2017. What made you think I was referencing the 1970 edition? Oh, you're a biased Darwinist.


https://www.amazon.com/Lehninger-Principles-Biochemistry-David-Nelson/dp/1464126119

Read it an weep.

>Haloferax volcanii, a Prokaryotic Species that Does Not Use the Shine Dalgarno Mechanism for Translation Initiation at 5′-UTRs Published: April 14, 2014

>A translational enhancer derived from tobacco mosaic virus is functionally equivalent to a Shine-Dalgarno sequence. Proc Natl Acad Sci U S A. 1989 Jan; 86(1): 129–132.


Yes, more gaps and transitions to fill. You really don't get it do you. But at least you're making a good attempt at at a response which is more than I can say for this guy:

https://www.reddit.com/r/THUNDERDOME_DEBATE/comments/6auvhc/does_the_professor_of_darcrapolgy_think_selective/

>I read The Cosmic Serpent, by Jeremy Narby (https://amzn.to/2J2IklU) and found it interesting. It's far from obvious what people can and can't see under the influence of psychedelics. And I didn't "claim" anything. I put forward a tentative hypothesis. That is by no means a claim. If you have a better idea, put it forward.

I once asserted the central thesis of a book I read. Now that I have been criticized for its ridiculous conclusion I no longer assert that. But just think about it, it is possible, you never know.

>I also liked this, for a slightly different take (on the universality of serpent/dragon symbolism): An Instinct for Dragons, by David E Jones: https://amzn.to/2IKnc0w

This is a book about the origins of the concept of dragons. Scientists might scoff but I see deeper than they do.

>Serpent imagery is unimaginably deep. For a discussion of the relationship between human beings and predatory reptiles (snakes, mostly) you could also read Lynn Isbell's fascinating The Fruit, the Tree and the Serpent: Why We See so Well: https://amzn.to/2IKJCTh

Snakes are dangerous, this is interesting.

Read this and get back to me.

CLRS for algorithms/CS.

Probability and random processes for statistics.

Biological Sequence Analysis by Richard Durbin for my subfield of bioinformatics.

Here's some resources to get you started:

• https://www.edx.org/course/nutrition-health-part-1-macronutrients-wageningenx-nutr101x-0
  
  
• http://nutritionfacts.org/
  
  
• http://www.pcrm.org/health/resources
  
  
• https://www.amazon.com/Lehninger-Principles-Biochemistry-David-Nelson/dp/1429234148

I will have a look to that book.

I used to look Lehninger Principles of Biochemistry, what do you think about this book?

Thank you.

Chemistry has some expensive textbooks (each separate word is its own link)

This book was a life-saver when I was in grad school doing total synthesis

http://www.amazon.com/Advanced-Practical-Organic-Chemistry-Edition/dp/1439860971

Due to non-existent biology background, you could start by reading Campbell Biology and Alberts Molecular Biology of the Cell.

It actually comes from a book called The Cosmic Serpent

https://www.amazon.com/Cosmic-Serpent-DNA-Origins-Knowledge/dp/0874779642

And another

http://www.amazon.com/gp/product/1429234148/

Your DNA. Seriously. Maybe.
Read this book: The Cosmic Serpent: DNA and the Origins of Knowledge by Jeremy Narby
https://www.amazon.com/Cosmic-Serpent-DNA-Origins-Knowledge/dp/0874779642

You can try this one:

https://www.amazon.com/Biological-Sequence-Analysis-Probabilistic-Proteins/dp/0521629713

It introduces one of the key problems in bioinformatics and should be fairly readable for someone of your background. It primarily adresses your first bullet, and does not go into many details about implementations,

Interestingly enough https://www.amazon.com/gp/aw/d/1259188124/ and https://www.amazon.com/gp/aw/d/1464126119/ref=mp_s_a_1_1?ie=UTF8&qid=1520567419&sr=8-1&pi=AC_SX236_SY340_FMwebp_QL65&keywords=lehninger+principles+of+biochemistry+7th+edition&dpPl=1&dpID=51S8Bgm9FmL&ref=plSrch disagree with your text. And, seeing as I have more experience with both these texts, and poisons and toxins fall into what I do professionally, we're going to have to agree to disagree.

I don't work in genomics specically but we do a lot of next generation sequencing. I am a biologist with interests in machine learning so let me try to summarize where people in biology use it:

Microarrays: Cancer research in particular uses this, but basically every biology discipline has some applications of this. Basically what you get is thousand of signal intensities, each represeinting expression of a gene, per sample, and what you are interested in is finding genes that behave differently from sample to sample. This is an example of a high-dimensionality problem, where the number of features is much larger than the number of samples. If you want some idea of how much work has been done in this area take a look at this (list)[http://www.geneontology.org/GO.tools.microarray.shtml]. You can more or less find all kinds of statistical methods here. As a biologist i should probably mention that i believe micro-arrays have problems with reproducibility that no amount of data-analysis will solve.

Gene prediction: This is a typical genomics problem in which we are given a long DNA sequence and told to identify the genes in it. Genes have some telltale signs, but these can be located with slight differences to each other and might be completely absent. Also, genes in eukaryotes are interrupted by socalled introns that do not code for genes (this story is a lot longer in reality). Poisson statistics on dna words (k long subsequences of dna) is the classical way of finding overrepresented dna features. Newer techniques uses HMMs and conditional random fields, as machine learning oriented as it gets. (This)[http://www.amazon.com/Biological-Sequence-Analysis-Probabilistic-Proteins/dp/0521629713] is a modern classic in all things sequence related.

Phylogeny: This is another of bioinformatics major contributions to modern science. Given some model of how evolution changes the composition of a sequence, we are interested in figuring out how organisms/proteins/genes can be related and building trees that can show us these relation.

Next generation sequencing: We can now generate much more data than we can process, we need some way of filtering as the machines can be inaccurate. We also need methods to cluster sequences within specific thresholds.

Sequence searching: This is a major topic. The most cited paper in the history of science is the one that announced BLAST. Machine learning is not as used here yet, but it probably will be if something faster than the traditional alignment algorithms come up.

This was just a short and incomplete overview, if you have specific questions i would be happy to answer.

> Every single living organism at their base level requires 3 things to live, DNA, RNA and Proteins, all of which are co-dependant on one another for existence (DNA needs RNA & Proteins to feed it, RNA needs DNA & Proteins to form it and Proteins needs DNA to form RNA to create it) and if even for a split-second they would cease to exist, and they probability of them to randomly form at the EXACT same time is, at best, in the TRILLIONS

This is an ill informed understanding of the central dogma and conflating it with de novo origin of life. I have absolutely no idea what your point is here other than conflating a bunch of scientific words together. Please clarify with links to the primary literature.

This wikipedia article is equivalent to what you would read in a high school level biology text about the central dogma. Otherwise, I have absolutley no clue what your point is here.

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Central_dogma_of_molecular_biology

> And the 2 mains factors in Genetic Mutation are "Point Mutation" and "Gene Duplication"; these can certainly account for Micro-Evolution, the changes one would experience that are minor and can even be achieved in one's lifetime, however studies into Micro-Evolution have revealed that this can NOT progress into Macro-Evolution, the change from one species into another, because of TWO things;
> 1) There is no guarantee that the mutation would be passed on or even continue to develop
> &
> 2) If the mutation was the result of some sort of outside factor, then a soon as it is no longer in play, the mutation near 100% of the time everses, disappearing altogether in the span of a few generations.

Wrong. This book here is a good primer on genome/gene evolution.

https://www.amazon.com/Origins-Genome-Architecture-Michael-Lynch/dp/0878934847

Please read it, and its references to the primary literature. Note that this text is just a primer. However, You are 100% wrong in your understanding of gene/genome evolution. It isn't my job to educate you, please read this book educate yourself and come back when you know something.

> Also even if that wasn't the case and a new species was born, unless they had a sibling of the opposite gender then if would die out with them because the DEFINING trait of a species is that it can't reproduce with another species, that's why even though dog come in a large variety they're STILL the same species, because they can have kids with one another, meanwhile Chimps and Humans can't, thus different species.

Wrong again. You do not appear to understand what a species concept is. Queller discusses this in detail and in terms of sociality.

A good place to start, but this is not all inclusive of species concept discussion.

https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pmc/articles/PMC2781869/

> Also unless they we're born with mutation, a female could NEVER pass it on, because their reproductive cells are never replaced as they age, also if the half of a parents genetic code doesn't posses the mutation their child WON'T inherit it. with this it is also argued that the mere existence of TWO genders disproves Evolution, because the chances of a mutation that gives birth to creature that needs another to reproduce happening and another mutation happening around the same time that needs to mate with the first creature to reproduce is ASTRONOMICALLY HIGH.

Wrong again. You are applying population genetics to the individual. This is grossly misinformed.

This is a quick primer

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Population_genetics

Again, this is a very pedestrian article since it is wikipedia.

Until you have read https://www.amazon.com/Principles-Population-Genetics-Daniel-Hartl/dp/0878933085 you really should refrain from any discussion of population genetics, not to mention the volumous works of others this cites and have been built on these model.

> If you want visible proof then just look at humans and dogs, humans are everywhere on Earth, in various different environments and have had significant time for mutations to occur, however the biggest change was in skin colour and NO NEW SPECIES EMERGED, we're all still human. And with dogs, humans forced mutations to occur in them for over 100 years, thus if anything was going to scientifically replicate Marco-Evolution it was that, however instead of new species being born, the most we got was Inbred Monstrosities suffering from complete Genetic Failure AND THEY WERE ALL STILL DOGS

Again, you do not understand population genetics. This is completely wrong. As long as populuations are mixing, speciation is not possible. Again, see the Hartl book amongst many others. Heck, even Campbell's biology addresses exactly this point (a high school/freshmen biology text).

> Plus there's also the existence of Sequential Hermaphrodites, species with the ability to change gender, there is no scientific explanation for how they got this ability. And if you ask yourself HOW did they evolve that ability, an ability to rearrange their entire biology: Over millions of years? Since that ability is generally used to compensate for a missing gender, the species would die out long before that happened. And if you can't say a giant leap over at most a few generations or else you as well expect someone to just give birth to a baby that can shoo laser beams out of it's eyes.

Ok, so now we are talking about sex evolution? Obviously you haven't read this article, amongst many others it cites and have cited it.

http://linkinghub.elsevier.com/retrieve/pii/S0960982206016198?via=sd

Again, you are both wrong and do not understand.

> And there's also Crocodiles to consider, they've been around for 200 million years, longer than the dinosaurs, survived multiple Mass Extinction Events, and the only change they've gone through is becoming smaller, or the Coelacanth an ancient species of fish that first appeared 400 million years ago and was though to be extinct yet was discovered to be alive and unchanged from 400 million yrs ago. And you can't just say it's because they didn't need to because something any Evolutionist will point out is: "Evolution. IS. CONSTANT." If macro-evolution was real then regardless of whether they needed to or not, they would of evolved into new species. If it didn't work that way then we would still have Dinosaurs around unchanged from 75 million years ago, at least the aquatic ones anyway. The reason I used dinosaurs as my example is because they are extremely similar to crocodiles, thus if they nature of the planet changed so they couldn't survive, then neither could crocodiles.

Ok, here you have really exposed the fact that you do not understand population genetics. You really need to read biology by Campbell. Again, a highschool/freshmen level biology textbook. This is factually incorrect.

Crocodiles found their niche and survived. Dinosaurs did actually survive - they are modern day birds. Shockingly, they look different now because they evolved into new species. So it would seem that your best example (dinosaurs) is also factually incorrect.

Here is a recent paper among thousands http://journals.plos.org/plosbiology/article?id=10.1371/journal.pbio.1001854 that says you are factually wrong.

> Also Evolution wasn't popularised by the Scientific Community, but by Atheists who keep pushing it to be taught in schools and push and teaching of religion out, such as the British Humanist Association an atheist group trying to get school kids to learn evolution with stories about dying due to not been good enough when change comes.

Again, factually incorrect. Darwin himself was religious.

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Charles_Darwin

Pope Francis must also be an atheist.

https://www.usnews.com/news/articles/2014/10/28/pope-francis-comments-on-evolution-and-the-catholic-church

> Also forget not that just because a lot of scientists say something is fact doesn't mean it's true, cause over 100 years ago scientists said that going 40 mph would cause ones lungs to collapse and it has been repeatedly revealed that some scientists will lie for the sake of money or reputation and can even make outrageous claims due to perusing a crazy obsession. Evolution could very well be a "Cash Cow" for the Scientific Community because they don't tell us how much funding they receive for each field of research, the closest we got was when in 2011 the magazine Scientific American revealed that the over half of its funds go to a vaguely named field "LIFE" and even if we assume that 75% of that goes to medicine that would still make Evolution the 3rd highest funded Field of Research for scientists.

What? See above, now you are just getting looney.

I don't know of many scientists that are "getting rich" off science, especially evolutionary biologists. Please cite examples of evolutionary biologists as a population getting rich. I would like to know the mean and standard deviation of how rich evolutionary biologists are as a population. If you cannot produce this number, please retract this statement.