I have in front of me a copy of the book “Nucleotide sequences 1984 Part 1 A compilation from the GenBankTM and EMBL data libraries” published by IRL Press. Wow, what a surreal book for anyone used to dealing with sequence databases today. The idea that DNA sequences would be printed out, in an actual book…
Tag: books
The Eighth Day of Creation and the weight of knowledge
There have been several obituaries for Horace Judson recently [1][2], and today Larry Moran in an excellent Sandwalk blog post talked about the lack of knowledge of the history of their field by molecular biologists modern researchers are completely unaware of the history of their field. That’s partly because the work on bacteria and bacteriophage—where…
The monophyly of plants and insects
I just received promotional information about a new book from Garland Science publishers. “Genome Duplication; concepts, mechanisms, evolution and disease” By Melvin L DePamphilis and Stephen D Bell. Garland Science Oct 2010 ISBN: 978-0-415-44206. It sounds like a great title, especially for someone like me who thinks genome and gene duplication are among the most…
Dry Store Room No 1
The other book I read over Christmas was “Dry Store Room No. 1: The Secret Life of the Natural History Museum” by Richard Fortey. This is an interesting tour of some of the past and present personalities behind the Natural History Museum, London. I found it a really interesting light read. A good motto put…
Bad Science
Ben Goldacre is one of my favourite writers, I turn to his column in the Guardian each Saturday before anything else. I read his excellent book “Bad Science” over Christmas, and I really recommend it. He looks primarily at the reporting of science in the media but also about the science (lack of) in everyday…
Reading the story in DNA
I just received a copy of “Reading the story in DNA; a beginner’s guide to molecular evolution” by Lindell Bromham, OUP 2008, ISBN: 978-0-19-929091-8I have only looked at it quickly but it is very impressive. I like the writing style. It is well produced. Figures are excellent. The parts I have read are full of…
The Origins of Genome Architecture- Lynch
So I don’t hate all books. Over Christmas I read Michael Lynch’s new book “The Origins of Genome Architecture”. One of the best books I have read in a long time. Well-written, clearly argued, well referenced and important. If you like molecular evolution, genomics or related topics you should definitely read this. I learned a…
EvoPhylo 