“Top picks for books in the life sciences”

Non-Amazon links are better, but options are important. I might add blurbs to this myself, but it will certainly come horribly slowly.

Micheal Levin Says:

  • “There are many more good ones, I had to make hard choices to get it to a manageable number. Not saying I agree with everything in every book - these are ones that stretch thinking in useful ways.”
  • “Some are very old; they have important ideas you will not find in modern sources. I will also put this list up on my website and add to it. Possibly links will be added later, and eventually some top picks in other fields as well. Sorry, I know it would be great to have a blurb [for] each one; I just don’t have the time. In no particular order:”
  • Source: https://twitter.com/drmichaellevin/status/1565677528789942273

Evolution in Four Dimensions by Eva Jablonka and Marion J. Lamb

The Evolution of the Sensitive Soul by Eva Jablonka and Simona Ginsburg

The Elements of Experimental Embryology by Gavin de Beer and Julian Huxley

The Tinkerer’s Accomplice by J. Scott Turner

Evolution in Four Dimensions by Eva Jablonka and Marion J. Lamb

The Evolution of the Sensitive Soul by Eva Jablonka and Simona Ginsburg

The Elements of Experimental Embryology by Gavin de Beer and Julian Huxley

The Tinkerer’s Accomplice by J. Scott Turner

The Origins of Order by Stuart A. Kauffman

An Introduction to the Study of Experimental Medicine by Claude Bernard

The Touchstone of Life by Werner R. Loewenstein

Behavior and Evolution by Jean Piaget

On Growth and Form by D’Arcy Wentworth Thompson

The Ideas of Biology by John Tyler Bonner

On Development by John Tyler Bonner

Blueprint For Immortality: The Electric Patterns of Life by Harold Saxton Burr

Life Itself by Robert Rosen

The Integrated Mind by Michael S. Gazzaniga and Joseph E. LeDoux

The Principles of Psychology by William James

The Directiveness of Organic Activities by E.S. Russell

Design for a Brain by W. R. Ashby

Behavior of the lower organisms by H. S. Jennings