Readings

In-Class Readings

There is so much fascinating biology to explore — far more than we could ever cover in a single quarter of an introductory course. Instead, we will often point you to excellent readings that serve as opportunities to continue your adventure your own way. We will list them here as the course progresses. Interacting with these readings is entirely optional, but highly encouraged.

Day 1

Echolocation in Dolphins with a Dolphin-Bat Comparison by Whitlow Au. Bioacoustics (1997). Striking experiments on the remarkable capabilities of dolphin echolocation.

Cormac McCarthy Did Not Talk Craft, With One Surprising Exception by Walker Mimms. New York Times (2024). Reflections on the life of Roger Payne through the lens of his relationship with the late great American writer Cormac McCarthy.

More is Different by P.W. Anderson. Science (1972). Musings on the role of fundamental laws in science.

Watch antibiotic resistance evolve by M. Baym, R. Kishony, R. Groleau, T. Lieberman, R. Chait. Science News (2016). Experiment showing the evolution of antibiotic resistance in growing bacteria.

Fermi problem by Wikipedia (2024). Behold the power of Fermi problems! With training you too could ‘solve’ any problem in 15 minutes.

Duration of urination does not change with body size. by P. Yang, J. Pham, J. Choo, D. Hu. PNAS (2014). The surprising universality of urination times as a window into fluid dynamics and allometric scaling!

David W. Schindler (1940–2021): Trailblazing scientist and advocate for the environment by PNAS (2021). Remembering David Schindler, a pioneering limnologist who conducted incredibly ambitious whole-ecosystem experiments in Canadian lakes (and identified phosphorus as a major driver of freshwater eutrophication).

Superresolution imaging of ribosomes and RNA polymerase in live Escherichia coli cells by Bakshi et al. molecular microbiology (2012).

Day 2

Real-Time Kinetics of Gene Activity in Individual Bacteria by Golding et al. Cell (2005).

Tsunami-driven rafting: Transoceanicspecies dispersal and implicationsfor marine biogeography by Carlton et al. Science (2017).

The First 50 Million Prime Numbers by Don Zagier, translated by R. Perlis. Beihefte zu Elemente der Mathematik (1975).

Day 3

Reflections on the Motive Power of Heat by N.-L.-S. Carnot John Wiley & Sons (1897).

Feynman and the visualization of space-time processes by Silvan S. Schweber American Physical Society (1986).

Does evolutionary theory need a rethink? by Laland, K., et al. Nature (2014).

In Memoriam: Jacques Monod (1910–1976) by Agnes Ullmann Genome Biol. Evol. (2011).

Whence cometh the allosterome? by Janet E. Lindsley and Jared Rutter PNAS. (2006).

The great ideas of biology by Sir Paul Nurse Royal College of Physicians of London. (2003).

The biomass distribution on Earth by Bar-On, Y. et al. PNAS (2018).

Your Inner Fish: Neil Shubin - Conversations with History by Neil Shubin and Harry Kreisler University of California Television (2009).

Day 4

Global human-made mass exceeds all living biomass by Elhacham, E., Ben-Uri, L., Grozovski, J., Bar-On, Y., Milo, R. Nature (2020).

Local thermodynamics govern formation and dissolution of Caenorhabditis elegans P granule condensates by Anatol W. Fritsch, et al. PNAS (2021).

The Feynman Lectures on Physics by Richard Feynman. California Institute of Technology (1965, 2006, 2013).

Day 5

The metabolic rate of the biosphere and its components by Tori M. Hoehler, et al. PNAS (2023).

Dissipation and energy propagation across scales in an active cytoskeletal material by Peter J. Foster, et al. PNAS (2023). Measuring the dissipation of motor-microtubule materials report orders of magnitude discrepancies in efficiency.

Evolutionary Dynamics by Daniel S. Fisher Lyman Laboratory, Harvard University (2023). Daniel Fisher’s lectures on evolutionary dynamics.

The Probability of Heads by Joseph B. Keller Lyman Laboratory, Harvard University (1986).

External Resources

Links to external databases and other resources that you may find helpful during the course.