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.
Week 1
Terrestrial animal tracking as an eye on life and planet by Roland Kays, Margaret C. Crofoot, Walter Jetz, and Martin Wikelski. Science (2015). A wide ranging introduction to the modern state of the art in animal tracking. Every figure tells an important story.
Aquatic animal telemetry: a panoramic window into the underwater world by Nigel Hussey, Steven Kessel, Kim Aarestrup, Steven Cooke, Paul Cowley, Aaron Fisk, Robert Harcourt, Kim Holland, Sara Iverson, John Kocik, Joanna Mills Flemming, and Fred Whoriskey. Science (2015). …
Migratory shearwaters integrate oceanic resources across the Pacific Ocean in an endless summer by Scott Shaffer, Yann Tremblay, Henri Weimerskirch, Darren Scott, David Thomspon, Paul Sagar, Henrik Moller, Graeme Taylor, David Foley, Barbara Block, and Daniel Costa. PNAS (2006). …
Duration of urination does not change with body size by Patricia Yang, Jonathan Pham, Jerome Choo, and David Hu. PNAS (2014). …
Week 4
Molecular Decay of the Tooth Gene Enamelin (ENAM) Mirrors the Loss of Enamel in the Fossil Record of Placental Mammals by Robert Meredith, John Gatesy, William Murphy, Oliver Ryder, and Mark Springer. PLoS Genetics (2009). …
Week 7
A First Exposure to Statistical Mechanics for Life Scientists by Hernan G. Garcia, Jané Kondev, Nigel Orme, Julie A. Theriot, and Rob Phillips. *Rejected by American Journal of Physics* (2007.). An article elucidating key features of the formidably general statistical mechanical protocol.
Week 9
All I Really Need to Know about Physics I had to Dig Up by Myself by David Stern Physics Today (1993).
Four Golden Lessons by Steven Weinberg Nature (2003).
Biology must generate ideas as well as data by Paul Nurse Nature (2021).
Life’s code script by Sydney Brenner Nature (2012).
External Resources
Links to external databases and other resources that you may find helpful during the course.
-
The Bionumbers Database. An incredibly handy collection of numbers from the molecular and cell biology literature.
-
The Human Impacts Database. Useful quantities describing the interactions of humans with Earth’s land, oceans, atmosphere, flora and fauna.
-
Street-Fighting Mathematics: The Art of Educated Guessing and Opportunistic Problem Solving. This excellent free book by Sanjoy Mahajan (a Caltech alum!) teaches order-of-magnitude estimation in the same style that we will employ throughout the course. Essential reading for those curious to explore more advanced techniques than those we will cover.