Q10.7: Biological Background Readings?

Adams, D. with Carwardine M. (1990) "Last Chance to see...", London: Heinemann. [David Corne: I strongly suggest you read this. Its a report on visits to various parts of the world to see endangered species. It is remarkably and wonderfully funny and illuminating. It would actually be a good reference to have in any bit of the FAQ to do with genetic diversity and/or the lack of it, or the remarkable kinds of adaptations that can occur for the strangest reasons.]

Cairns-Smith, A.G. (1985) "Seven Clues to the Origin of Life", Cambridge: Cambridge Univ. Press.

Fisher, R.A. (1958) "The Genetic Theory of Natural Selection", New York: Dover.

Futuyma, D.J. (1986) "Evolutionary Biology", Sunderland, MA: Sinauer Assoc. [eds note: the bibliography of this book is truly a treasure chest]

Lewin, B. (1993) "Genes IV".

Lewontin, R.C. (1974) "The Genetic Basis of Evolutionary Change", New York: Columbia Univ. Press.

Maynard Smith, J. (1972) "On Evolution", Edinburgh: Edinburgh Univ. Press.

Maynard Smith, J. (1978) "Optimization Theory in Evolution", Annual Review of Ecology and Systematics 9:31-56.

Maynard Smith, J. (1982) "Evolution and the Theory of Games", Cambridge: Cambridge Univ. Press.

Maynard Smith, J. (1989) "The Problems of Biology", Oxford: Oxford Univ. Press.

Maynard Smith, J. (1989) "Evolutionary Genetics", Oxford: Oxford Univ. Press.

Mayr, E. (1963) "Animal Species and Evolution", Cambridge, MA: Harvard Univ. Press.

Mayr, E. (1982) "The Groth of Biological Thought", Cambridge, MA: The Belknap Press of Harvard Univ. Press.

Ridley, M. (1985) "The Problems of Evolution", Oxford: Oxford Univ. Press.

Tort, P. Ed. (1996) "Dictionary of Darwinism and of Evolution", Paris, France: Presses Universitaires de France. Produced by a team of 150 international experts over a period of 10 years. Contains a vast amount of information about what Darwinism is and (perhaps more importantly) is not. Further information from http://www.planete.net/~ptort/darwin/evolengl.html (in various languages).

Watson, J.D. (1966) "Molecular Biology of the Gene", Menlo Park: Benjamin.

Watson, J.D., Hopkins, N.H., Roberts, J.W., Steitz, J.A. & Weiner, A.M. (1987) "Molecular Biology of the Gene (4th edn)", Menlo Park: Benjamin.

Williams, G.C. (1966) "Adaptation and Natural Selection", Princeton, NJ: Princeton Univ. Press.

Wright, S. (1932) "The roles of mutation, inbreeding, crossbreeding and selection in evolution", in: Proc. of the 6th Int'l Congress on Genetics I, 356.

There is a *lot* of interesting material on biology and evolution in the talk.origins newsgroup repository, available by FTP. The index of files, available from ftp://ics.uci.edu/pub/origins/Index , lists what's there, and includes files on Darwinism, definition of evolution, introduction to evolutionary biology, a list of important FAQ files, speciation, and genetic drift.