SMP book/essay club
 

Diebitter has this going on in the lounge and he was thinking that this could work here. I agree that it would be pretty interesting and help get some S back into SMP. There's a lot of stuff in my fields that I think people would get a lot out of and I'm sure that other people feel the same way about their fields.
Basically we were thinking about a paper or essay that we all read and then discuss. A lot of the classics are available online.
Thoughts?

Re: SMP book/essay club
 

I'm in, whatever it is, as long as it doesn't involve buying an expensive hardback.

EDIT: And to get the ball rolling, I'll start with suggesting a perennial text: The Selfish Gene.

EDITEDIT: If you guys pick something populist enough to be appreciated by non-scientists, I'll put a note in the Lounge about it. Might be cool to get some cross-forum genetic mixing...

Re: SMP book/essay club
 

Which classics were you thinking of?
I see Selfish Gene has been suggested.
Fine by me.

It's 30 years old. A new read could be interesting considering the advances in some related fields.

luckyme

Re: SMP book/essay club
 

I have a book called Genes in Conflict which is sort of like a 2004 version of the Selfish Gene, although it is far more science intensive. But its also pretty hefty, and probably expensive. I'm not sure exactly what types of suggestions to make.

Re: SMP book/essay club
 

[ QUOTE ]

A lot of the classics are available online.
Thoughts?


[/ QUOTE ]

Paradise Lost, Milton.

Re: SMP book/essay club
 

NotReady,

excellent suggestion for a good book to bring the S back to SMP


RDuke,

Something I read for a class that I think might be great for this is "Agile Gene" by Matt Ridley. Its a very easy to read look at human behaviour, and a history of the nature vs nuture debate.


Also.. with regard to papers, Id like to see something out of theoretical biology. I actually have a fairly good introductery look at foraging theory from a class in PDF format that might be good, and I could definitely post it.

The reason Id like to see something out of this field, is that I have the feeling that people on here really havent seen / dont believe in modeling biology

Re: SMP book/essay club
 

Cool idea. I'll try to come up with some good ideas when I get home tonight.

Re: SMP book/essay club
 

CMI

A bit of a blast from the past, but here is an SMP post of old I did about ecological energetics. It's pretty superficial, but I thought you might like a look.

Re: SMP book/essay club
 

More M than S (but quite a bit of P too) - Proofs and Refutations by Lakatos (I think). I read it years ago but it was very good from memory.

Re: SMP book/essay club
 

[ QUOTE ]
introductery

[/ QUOTE ]

omg