Reddit mentions: The best developmental biology books

I'm coming from Molecular biology background so I can't really help you about medical textbooks but for the biological side of things I would recommend the following:

Biology of Aging: Observations and Principles by Arking - This was my textbook for the subject. It's really good, comprehensive book that covers methodology, basic principles and some more advanced.

An Introduction to Genetic Analysis by Griffiths - This was recommended for my Genetics class. Quite comprehensive and explains some basic genetic concepts really well (imo).

Molecular Biology of the Gene by Watson - Almost all the basic stuff from molecular biology you'll need. Essentially, The Book.

Molecular Biology of the Cell by Alberts - Cell biology, you'll need it a lot and Alberts is really good at explaining things even if it's sometimes a bit too wide.

Developmental Biology by Gilberts Developmental biology is, imo, very important and Gilberts is one of the best in the field. Definitely check it out.

There is a few more books on other subjects that are under or above this level (depending on uni this is 2nd or 3rd year of BsC) but you'll get the gist.

Considering the price of these I would recommend you to check out libgen.io (feel free to pm me if you need some help). Also you might want to check out r/longevity , it has much more traffic than this sub. I hope I wasn't confusing, I just woke up and my English is not so good in the morning. :)

I'm kinda in the same boat as you. Only I'm going for PhD so if you need any help or advice feel free to pm me. :)

Regarding medicine: That's going to be a few years down the road. A lot of what you will learn now and in college will have ties in medicine (and said ties are often discussed), but the material they teach in medical school itself requires breadth and depth that takes a while to learn. Still, reading up on random wiki articles and journal papers from time to time keeps things interesting, and it's still a great way to learn. I did that all throughout my undergraduate years. You definitely will not know everything in said articles, but they're still fun to read and you'll know more than if you didn't read them at all.

For online resources, Khan Academy has the best online resources I know of, but I wouldn't rely on them too much. Personally, I'd recommend a self-study course using textbooks/e-books myself.

If you go this route, feel free to buy used books. General biology has not changed much in the past ten years that you need to buy the latest editions of any textbook (and seriously, when comparing $15 to $200, not worth it.)

Books I went through my undergraduate year (Note: I am a molecular and cellular biology major):

• Gen Bio (AP Bio is equivalent to 1/2 this course): 978-0716788515
  
  
• Cellular Biology (Second year lower div): 978-0815320456
  
  
• Cellular Biology (Upper Div): Use above book
  
  These should get you started and keep you busy for a while :) Other than that, Google is your best friend. Search up any words or concepts you don't know. Between Google, university wikis, subreddits like r/biology, YouTube, and increased university presence on the internet, there are a ton of resources out there for you.
  
  PS: Obligatory link to Inner Life of the Cell that we show in every introductory bio class:
  
  http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=wJyUtbn0O5Y

>methodically state the case for why creation is most likely and/or why evolution is unlikely.

You will find lots and lots of the latter. Very little of the former.

>I'd also be happy to read GOOD anti-creation books as well, provided they meet the above criterion of not being mocking.

Those would just be science books based on the academic literature, wouldn't they?

Here is my reading list form the past few months. These would be pro-evolution (a.k.a science). Creationism is mentioned in a few of them, but almost in passing because Creationism is simply not a factor in legitimate scientific research, so it gets pretty much no consideration.

Knock yourself out. ;)

• Your Inner Fish by Neil Shubin - Also, watch the three part series that aired on PBS hosted by Neil Shubin.
  
  
• Endless Forms Most Beautiful by Sean B. Carroll - An in depth look into developmental evolution.
  
  
• The Universe Within: Discovering the Common History of Rocks, Planets, and People by Neil Shubin
  
  
• The Link by Colin Tudge and Josh Young
  
  
• Before the Dawn by Nicholas Wade
  
  
• Relics of Eden: The Powerful Evidence of Evolution in Human DNA by Daniel J. Fairbanks - This and the other Fairbanks book listed below are the only books on this list with the intent to refute what creationists contend. He does this not by presenting the creationist argument and then trying to refute. He does it by simply presenting the evidence that science has born out regarding human evolution and genetics.
  
  
• The Story of Earth by Robert Hazen - this is a cool book about the history of the Earth and life and how geology and biology worked in tandem with other factors to produce life from the point of view of a protein biologist.
  
  
• Life: A Natural History of the First Four Billion Years of Life on Earth by Richard Fortey - Good general overview of evolutionary and geologic history.
  
  
• The Cambrian Explosion: The Construction of Animal Biodiversity by Edwin Douglas - This is the most academic book in this list and, as such, is the most difficult to read. It is a concise look at what we know about the Cambrian Explosion from the scientific literature.
  
  
• Life's Ratchet by Peter Hoffmann - Very good book about how the chaos wrought inside cells by thermal motion at the molecular level leads to the ordered functioning of the machinery of life.
  
  
• What is Life? How Chemistry Becomes Biology by Addy Pross - Super interesting take on the question, "What is Life?" He comes to a very interesting conclusion which might have implications for abiogenesis research.
  
  
• The Machinery of Life by David S. Goodsell - A neat little book that gets you acquainted with what it's really like inside of cells. A good companion book to read with Life's Ratchet as they highlight different aspects of the same topic.
  
  
• Evolving by Daniel J. Fairbanks
  
  
• Neanderthal Man: In Search of Lost Genomes by Svante Paabo - Very interesting book about the drama, blood, sweat and tears, Dr. Paabo shed to develop the techniques to sequence ancient DNA. You simply won't find books like this and Your Inner Fish above amongst Creationist literature because they simply don't do what these scientists do out in the field and in the lab.

> Dawkins did a great interview with Steven Rose where Rose calls him out on this and he really has no coherent answer.

Ha, I was reading your previous post in this chain and thought of that exact debate, and was going to link to it for your enjoyment (figured your knowledge base of evolutionary theory is probably beyond the level of that discussion, but it's a fun way to spend an hour) and that of others reading the thread. I'm pleased to see you thought of it first! It's been a very long time since I watched it, but what I seem to remember most saliently is Dawkins utterly failing to understand the dialectical nature between phenotype and environment and the role of that dialectic in producing evolutionary outcomes. Watching Dawkins compared to Rose in that discussion made me feel like Dawkins had a college freshman's understanding of evolutionary biology and the various mechanisms that make up the process of evolution when compared with Rose's grasp of the subject.

Have you read Lifelines or Not in Our Genes? Again, it's been a while since I've read them but I remember especially enjoying the latter. They were clearly written for the layperson, but I was a poli sci & philosophy student who took a whopping two courses in biology, so they were reasonably interesting for me, and it was nice to get an alternative take on evolutionary biology versus all the gene-centric stuff like that of Dawkins et. al., which so often seems to morph into right-wing evo psych pseudoscientific "just-so" nonsense.

Personally, I have had more success focusing on what the arms should be doing rather than focusing on what the elbow shouldn't be doing. You want to "reach over the barrel" and put your forearm and hand in a position where they can act as a paddle, pulling straight back. When your elbow drops, you are pushing down on the water as much as pulling back.

Different visualizations,cues, and drills click for different people. By far my favorite resource on developing a strong pull (which centers around a high elbow catch) is this book:

http://www.amazon.com/Swim-Speed-Secrets-Swimmers-Triathletes/dp/1934030880/ref=sr_1_3?ie=UTF8&qid=1369332046&sr=8-3&keywords=sheila+taormina

I would recommend looking up "high elbow catch" on youtube. There are many excellent instructional videos out there. I'd also recommend looking at videos of elite swimmers, like this guy:

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=XvM3JYC--hM

Or any of the swimmers here:

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=G52cmjq7wsc

You are right that limited flexibility can hinder the correct pulling position. You will get more flexible just by swimming, but you can also do stretches out of the pool to improve flexibility quicker. The book I linked to mentions some of these stretches. This is also a good protocol:

http://www.usaswimming.org/ViewMiscArticle.aspx?TabId=1939&mid=9757&ItemId=5179

On evolution:

I urge you to read some books on the issue that aren't written with a fundamentalist Christian slant. The science is decisive, and the distinction between "macro" and "micro" is itself a religious confusion. (as others have already pointed out).

On the Big Bang: The biggest problem with the Big Bang is that we don't know how it happened. That is a problem, and scientists are working obsessively to solve it. But saying "God did it" buys you a whole host of new problems. How did God happen? Who created God? Why did he create the universe? You haven't answered anything by saying "God did it": you've just kicked the can down the road and added an additional unfalsifiable and unsupported assumption.

Also, the evidence for the Big Bang is all around you: look up background microwave radiation,distribution and evolution of galaxies, the abundance of light elements, and the expansion of space.

On the supernatural:

Any thinking that starts with "Do you think it's possible that..." is a HUGE RED FLAG. Almost anything is possible, but usually the sort of logic that must be defended with a "Well, it's possible..." is absurdly improbable. This is a good example. Yeah, it's possible that an entire other world could be layered on our own - but it's more improbable than winning the lottery, and I don't buy lottery tickets.

If I had to explain the fundamental difference between the way I think about the spiritual and the way you think about the spiritual, it would be this. You ask "Is it possible that..." and "Do you think that maybe..."

I ask "Is there empirical support for..." and "Does the evidence support the assertion that..."

As for the hope that human consciousness continues on....

Nope. This is it. That sucks, and I'm sorry. It's among the hardest pills to swallow about being an atheist - but it's true whether you believe it or not.

I really think it will help. The tower26 episodes on alignment really helped me.

Also, I found this book to be helpful: https://www.amazon.com/Swim-Speed-Secrets-Swimmers-Triathletes/dp/1934030880

And finally, check out swimsmooth.com. the have some good posts.

I'm 42 and learned to swim 3 years ago when I wanted to try triathlon. I still have improvements to make but I'm swimming a 1:55/100m pace and finally achieved a couple 500m swims under 10 minutes! And getting close to a sub-20 1k. Again, I'm not super fast, but I feel good about it and mention this to give you encouragement.

Oh! And one last thing - frequency is key. Get in the pool 3-4 times a week, even if a couple of those are 500m of drills. Just get in the pool. Best of luck to you - if this 40-something uncoordinated lady can do it, I know you can!!

I'd also suggest getting some cheap used books such as: Sex, Evolution and Behavior or Haldane's classic:The Causes of Evolution. Other authors worth checking out would be Dawkins, Darwin and Zahavi. Between free online courses and erudite but still very accessible books you can get a solid foundation on the basics, for much much less than a single college course, and perhaps find a particular field that really intrigues you. Lastly, there are a number of great blogs out there, John Hawkes is a favourite. I'd suggest steering clear of Gould, but The spandrels of San Marco is a classic, and wrestling with Gould's semantic-based arguments and being able, to your own satisfaction, refute them using facts, is a worthy exercise.

Oh, and I'd be remiss without throwing out Trivers or Lieberman

I am not a biologist.

The Counter-Creationism Handbook might be something like what you're looking for, though it does branch into non-evolutionary topics. It is a compilation of questions/arguments from talk.origins (usenet) that are discussed for a paragraph or two with lots of sources cited. Check out the reviews on Amazon. Really recommend this one.

What Evolution Is was a good introduction to evolution. I've read several, and I feel that this was the best. He also talks in passing about what evolution is not. Standard kind of non-fiction book.

Evolution is supposedly the reference textbook of atheists. There is a newer edition out, or you can pick up this one for about $15 (USD).

This book is great for technique and has some good swim workouts. 60 feet is a bit short but fine to get started. You're actually better off not pushing off the wall as far and really trying to get some good long strokes in. http://www.amazon.com/Swim-Speed-Secrets-Swimmers-Triathletes/dp/1934030880/ref=sr_1_5?ie=UTF8&qid=1377476163&sr=8-5&keywords=swim+training

One of the best books I have ever read, actually. Developmental Plasticity and Evolution by Mary Jane West-Eberhard, has a great deal of information on epigenetics.

http://www.amazon.com/Developmental-Plasticity-Evolution-Mary-West-Eberhard/dp/0195122356

edit: no it's not published in the last 5-7 years...but it is a great resource

From the way this first bit is framed, I wonder if you've ever studied or encountered any of the work that would fall under the aegis of "developmental systems theory". It seems like a lot of the ground you're trying to cover in terms of the distinction between genetic influences on evolution and epigenetic/cultural influences has been covered in great detail by developmental systems theorists from an anti-gene-centric perspective, and you should probably be engaging or at least acknowledging it. Susan Oyama's The Ontogeny of Information and Oyama/Griffiths/Gray's edited volume Cycles of Contingency are a couple of good texts to get acquainted with the DST approach and its (fairly far-reaching) philosophical implications.

What, especially, is tripping you up when it comes to evolution? In what way does it seem impossible? Don't feel ashamed...you have years of brainwashing to overcome. I was also in the same boat. I'm a scientist with an interest in science literacy and education, so I'm happy to answer any questions as best I can :)

I recommend the book "What Evolution Is" (http://www.amazon.com/What-Evolution-Science-Masters-Series/dp/0465044263) and "The Ponyfish's Glow" (http://www.amazon.com/The-Pony-Fishs-Glow-Purpose/dp/0465072836)

Read a book on evolution then. Might I recommend this book. Transform yourself into an Atheist if you desire the truth :)

Me too. Thanks for the reading suggestion--I'll definitely check it out! Funny, because this was one of my was my evo devo texts. A great book--even for laypeople.

(edit: added link to DNA to Diversity. Fuck I need (more) coffee]

The first time the evidence for common ancestry was fairly presented to me without any gross distortions, I was in my mid-20s and it blew my fucking mind. I ended up ordering about 15 books on evolution from popular writing (WEIT, Your Inner Fish, etc.) to graduate level stuff (From DNA to Diversity, Eco-devo, others).

One of the first things I did was to naively assume that other creationists were likely mostly just like myself, and my mind was thoroughly blown for a second time at the pushback I received at trying to share my newfound knowledge with other creationists.

Read this back in undergrad, kinda technical but a pretty good read: https://www.amazon.com/Coming-Life-Genes-Drive-Development/dp/0979845602

There are two books that I think would be good:

What Evolution Is

Why Evolution Is True

I liked both books. I am not sure how readable they are without a decent understanding of basic biology. Can you tell us how much background you have in biology? That may help with suggestions.

I just finished reading Swim Speed Secrets, which talks a lot about the pull phase of swimming as being the part where most of your speed is coming from. I have been doing tris for a couple years now and wanted to start to focus in on my swimming technique more. I liked the book for this and I am already seeing some improvement.

I know some people don't like this book because it leaves out some of the other parts of the stroke, but I think as long as you are aware of that it is a good read.

http://www.amazon.com/Swim-Speed-Secrets-Swimmers-Triathletes/dp/1934030880/ref=sr_1_1?ie=UTF8&qid=1463164698&sr=8-1&keywords=swim+speed+secrets

Well, I'm currently reading What Evolution Is by Ernst Mayr. I picked it up for some light reading and because I love the subject. It basically goes into detail about what evolution is (hence the title) and how it has shaped our thoughts as a society.

http://www.amazon.com/Principles-Brain-Evolution-Georg-Striedter/dp/0878938206/ref=sr_1_1?ie=UTF8&qid=1397844469&sr=8-1&keywords=georg+striedter

The above is a great book. If you want the full treatise, try this:

http://www.amazon.com/Evolution-Nervous-Systems-Four-Volume-Set/dp/0123925606/ref=sr_1_1?ie=UTF8&qid=1397844453&sr=8-1&keywords=evolution+of+nervous+systems

If you're looking for something that is really easy to read, then I would recommend What evolution is by
Ernst Mayr.

Edit: link

Hi /u/murphalicious55, I'm not sure if I am in any position to give advice, since I've been swimming for a small period of time.

These are the things that I did:

1.- Swim more. I go to the pool 4 times a week, and I average around 2500yd per session.

2.- No lollygagging in the pool. I use to swim with a team of Triathletes, but I found that I tend to socialize more when other people are around, and I would take very long breaks at the wall. When I'm alone, I just keep on doing my own thing.

3.- I bought a book. I bought this book and it's companion workout book. Really good information.

4.- I have a friend that has been a swimmer since he was a kid, he is a very competitive Age Grouper in Ironman 70.3 races, he's usually 1st or 2nd out of the water. About 2 times a month he comes to the pool with me and shows me some drills, and also takes a look at my stroke and tries to correct it.

I'm planning a 3 month swimming block that will begin in October, and I will concentrate on the swim and see if I can reach my goal of swimming 25min for the 1500m swim in an Olympic Tri. That's a 1:31/100yd pace (1:40/100m).

Evolution in no way suggests that "humans came from monkeys." That is a common and unfortunate misconception. Though the trail of human development is quite complicated, basically we share a common ancestor with primates (see http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Human_evolution for a good basic overview; for a more in-depth exploration, this book (http://www.amazon.com/What-Evolution-Ernst-Mayr/dp/0465044263/ref=cm_lmf_tit_2) is a really good read).

Sexual Dimorphism is common among many species.

You refer to "gender roles" as the cause, though I don't think that is correct. Gender is a societal construct - it is not societal laws that made women smaller and weaker as sexual dimorphism predates modern society. (It's interesting that some early feminist literature hypothesized that by now women would be physically equal to men, since they too attributed sexual dimorphism to gender roles.) Sexual dimorphism is rooted in biology - it was sexual dimorphism that caused gender roles, not the other way around.

Sexual dimorphism is evolutionarily adaptive. "What Evolution Is" has an interesting chapter on sexual dimorphism as it relates to "harem size". Typically animals that display sexual dimorphism have an uneven mating ratio - the larger the male relative the the female, the more mates he will have in his harem.

Given this evidence, your forth speculation makes sense - that the gap between females and males will diminish with time. But I do not believe it will disappear entirely since much of the female deficit in physical ability can be attributed to sacrifices made in favor of the ability to carry and raise children.

I would like to point out that evolution DOES NOT explain the origin of life, but the diversity of it. The science concerned with that is called Abiogenesis.

Now, on evolution I started with this one.

I also recommend: The Coiled Spring: How Life Begins,
Seven Clues to the Origin of Life, Life Evolving - Molecules, Mind And Meaning. And of course, Darwin's Origin Of Species.

If you'd like to read an evolutionary biology book by a different author, I might recommend How to Build a Dinosaur, by Jack Horner and James Gorman.

Hi. I just wanted to point out that your nomenclature is incomplete. The "n" number is a genetic complexity, so no cell (other than triploids or other polyploids) are ever above 2n. You're referring to the "c" number. At the end of S prior to Meiosis-I, the cells are 2n/4c. At the end of Meiosis-I (the reductional division), they are 1n/2c. At the end of Meiosis-II (the equatorial division), they are 1n/1c truly-haploid half-genomes. Most books, and most-all online discussion, simplify the matter and just use the "n" terminology. But, particularly if you work on meiosis or chromosome dosage, this is an important distinction and experts use both "n" and "c."

( = in most organisms. There are some insects whose Meiosis-I is equatorial and Meiosis-II is reductional. But they're rare and I don't think anyone does much study on them.)

Another point, there are natural examples of diploid parthenogenesis. An organisms's (I think pill-bugs) genome can split down to 1n/1c female pronuclei in eggs, but then is laid, undergoes DNA replication, then the two haploid genome products fuse generating a diploid maternally-derived genome. White's Animal Cytology and Evolution describes all sorts of exceptions to the "normal" view of chromosome behavior.

There have been Drosophila made that have entirely-maternal genomes, although this is in an experimental context. I can't find the reference for that work now, although the guy who did it was Dan Lindsley. If you want, let me know, and I'll find it.

"life"by Sadava et. al. is a good gen bio text, with a decent amount of material on plant biology. Im sure you can find it online as a digital copy somewhere.
Your questions are asking a lot more that I think you realize. to be general plant cells are surrounded by a cell wall that fills the spaces in between cells. Some cells form junctions with neighboring cells and essentially wash out all of their internals to become the veins of the plant, they are supported by their neighboring cells biochemical processes.

Virus can directly enter the cells of the plant, and utilize the cells own machinery to reproduces itself, and then be released into neighboring cells. The virus usually attaches via specific protein structures on its surface, to either receptors on the target cell, or in some cases, directly through the membrane. Sadave gets into some immunology but I dont think too much detail about plant immunochemistry.

You should read this textbook! It's all about epigenetics and ecological developmental biology... basically how our choices can effect our own biologies and how this can effect our future and our children's futures. Please note I've only read the first edition. This is the newly released second edition!

Ecological Developmental Biology, Second Edition https://www.amazon.com/dp/1605353442/ref=cm_sw_r_cp_apa_95wHxbEJ4GDFN

Edit: autocorrect issues

Both were from the same source.

Unfortunately, the best I can offer is the name of the text book Life: The Science of Biology [2009] (amazon link)

If my memory serves me, they were just a side note [in the margin] and didn't have an inline reference.

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.

Some of the criticisms of "What Evolution Is" by Mayr is that it doesn't go deep enough into the subject, which to me, is a good book as an introduction.
Or pick up a used Intro to Anthropology text book and note the sources they are citing and go that way.

A very nicely written book that adds a lot to Darwin's Theory of Sexual Selection is "The Handicap Principle: A Missing Piece of Darwin's Puzzle" by Amotz & Avishag Zahavi. Only little knowledge about evolution is necessary in order to understand this work because the authors present so many examples for their thoughts and conclusions. I've read it in German so I cannot comment on style and language of the English version.

What Evolution Is.

What evolution is by Ernst Mayr.

I'd prefer a serious scientific book, tbh, not popular literature.

I would read Darwin but he wrote what he wrote a very long time ago and I'd prefer a modern account. How about this: http://www.amazon.com/exec/obidos/ASIN/0465044263/

?

You realize he doesn't need to state something overtly to be saying it, right?

By calling women functionally non-adapted to certain work with rare exceptions there is a clear implication that he thinks they are inferior to men in those roles.

His arguments are:

1. Not in anyway new or insightful
   
   
2. Based on "research" that was originally used to justify discrimination of women due to their "biology"
   
   
3. Based on premises debunked since the 1980s
   
   
4. Advocates for limiting people's consideration for certain work types based on being a woman or minority
   
   These arguments are so commonly found within discriminatory arguments for supporting sexism that avoiding overt claims of inferiority does not separate its from its roots.
   
   I suggest you read Not in our Genes and consider the following:
   
   > The biological determinist argument follows a by now familiar structure: It begins with the citation of “evidence,” the “facts” of differences between men and women … These “facts,” which are taken as unquestioned, are seen as depending on prior psychological tendencies which in turn are accounted for by underlying biological differences between males and females at the level of brain structure or hormones. Biological determinism then shows that male-female differences in behavior among humans are paralleled by those found in nonhuman societies — among primates or rodents or birds . . . giving them an apparent universality that cannot be gainsaid by merely wishing things were different or fairer. . . And finally, the determinist argument endeavors to weld all currently observed differences together on the basis of the now familiar and Panglossian sociobiological arguments: that sexual divisions have emerged adaptively by natural selection, as a result of the different biological roles in reproduction of the two sexes . . . the inequalities are not merely inevitable but functional too.

Buying this book.
http://www.amazon.com/Swim-Speed-Secrets-Swimmers-Triathletes/dp/1934030880

it made me realize i was simply lazy in the pool and it helped me get my ass into shape.