10 Awesome Biology Books to Read and Enjoy Science Reading Challenge

thanks to short form for sponsoring this video hey what's going on everybody Justin here and in this video just want to share 10 biology books that have enjoyed in the past or am currently reading at the moment in support of the science reading challenge for those who don't know what that is it's science reading event that I'm hosting throughout the rest of the year so definitely go check it out and then come back here I'll leave the announcement up there and down below but let's just go ahead and and get started so first up we have David Quan's the tangle tree radical new history of life and David Quan is pretty prolific Natural History writer he's written on bunch of somewhat even technical topics there's this one for example and there is one on sutic diseases which came out before Co and everything so that's kind of interesting but yeah he's been recommended to me lot from some of his other books such as the song of the dodo this book is all about the whole concept of horizontal Gene transfer which for those who don't know what that is you know evolutionary speaking you know we inherit you know our DNA and stuff from our ancestors and all that horizontal Gene transfer is when bacteria and different organisms can pass genetic material through the same Generation rather than through descendants so that's really interesting and actually actually pretty significant portion of our DNA genome is actually probably derived from horizontal Gene transfer and the book goes into lot of detail about that so it's pretty crazy when you think about it that way and lot of different aspects of kind of big ideas of biology are discussed as well such as the the origin of the domains yeah remember when was in school we learned what king Philip came over for good spaghetti and King so went Kingdom film class order family CL genus species but yeah we didn't really learn anything about domains which is above which are above kingdoms and this is all about sort of the development too of between ukar ARA and bacteria so thought that was really interesting just because ARA and bacteria always kind of get like lumped together even though there's actually qu quite bit of difference between them but yeah you also learn about some of the newer Technologies granted think this was in 2009 want to say 2019 see 2018 this is when crisper which was just getting started about that time believe and that's genetic splicing tool don't can't remember exactly how it works but this book and others go into it pretty detail on how this this program is tool that allows you to kind of manipulate the genetic code of different organisms and kind of put different codes in different spots and everything to kind of edit it and change things up little bit and everything like that but yeah just pretty technical stuff kind of going on but just thoroughly thoroughly enjoyable the book I'm currently reading right now is part of buddy read that I'm doing with three other people as part of the science reading challenge is the gene by sidartha muker and this has been fantastic so far we're about think I'm about 30% of the way through so we we've learned little bit about the history of the 1800s kind of with mandelian genetics and kind of some of the horror stuff dealing with like Eugenics and things both in Europe and the United States how when people were kind of understanding like heredity and everything kind of like like the horror show that turned out to be but yeah you also get lot of family kind of vignettes from muker G's family history which he kind of goes into different inheritable Mental Health conditions and that sort of thing that his family has dealt with and just provides like really cool human lens and he writes so beautifully you can see why he won has won piter prize for one of his other works it's the one on cancer what's it called the Emperor of all maladies but so far my favorite takeaway has been how even though people couldn't physically figure out what gene was they didn't really have concept of DNA you know they just realized that has there has to be like genes or genetic material like in your body at some point but they couldn't like physically you know comprehend like what that actually was they just knew it as you know almost like as theoretical or physical or philosophical concept but before they could actually you know go into the idea of what genes actually are inside the cell what DNA actually is inside the cell so found that really fascinating I'm at the point now dealing with Roslin Franklin as well as Watson and Crick and they're in the process of discovering the actual like three-dimensional shape of DNA so that's pretty cool and thoroughly enjoying it it's great history book and great science book on you know core biological concept next up we got Fu Society book and it's my copy here of oops Silent Spring by Rachel Carson now before we go into too many details here on silent spring I'd like to introduce you to today's sponsor of this video which is short form now know lot of you have probably heard of different book summary apps and that sort of thing but let me tell you short form is if took some of those apps dragged them to the gym and made them lift some plates with me because these aren't your average sort of 10 15 minute just book summary Pages going on so yeah let's just go ahead and check it out so short form is platform that has thousands of book summaries as well as their own independent articles and would almost call them more like book analyses than just book summaries just because they are so in- depth they have catalog think in the thousands so far and they've been releasing new titles and new books each week and now let's just go ahead and look at few of the categories and they have all the important ones at least for me as you can see there's tons of them here but they got history philosophy and science which are definitely the you know the big three for me but you know lots of other stuff for other folks as well now let's just go ahead and look at few of the ones that I've been looking at recently you can see like play symposium for My Philosophy Discord not too long ago and here's something that might be coming up as sneak peak for some future videos with the structure of scientific revolutions with Thomas we've got Rachel Carson Silent Spring and the Jee by sartha mukui and it's been really good just kind of going through their catalog finding science and history books that I've already read in in the past kind of rushing up on things that I've may have forgotten kind of relearning all the Salient points and things so don't have to reread the entire book over again let's just go ahead and check it out so over here in with the genan by sartha Muki it's buddy read that I'm currently in the midst of but I've been using this just to kind of prepare myself cuz it's been long it's been long time since I've done any reading on like genetics or any coursework on that so you start off with the summary but it goes so much more more further than that as you can see just kind of keep going down and there's just tons just tons of information and one thing really love about short form is the add outside information that might not necessarily have been in the text of the book to kind of build up some context and explain different points some books almost have like chapter by chapter analysis and summary and then some books kind of have more just like generic kind of really long analysis but as you can see it's kind of broken down into different parts and stuff like that but I've been thoroughly enjoying it for those who like audiobooks you can listen to these analyses through audio format as well as printing them off in PDF format so you can physically write on some paper and stuff to take notes on your notes so if that's your thing you can do that as well but yeah I've been really enjoying it I've been doing couple like said been kind of alternating between brushing up on things I've already read as well as using them to kind of prepare myself just so can feel like get even more out of the ones that am currently like reading at the moment and think it's kind of fun too looking at some that hadn't even really considered just kind of learning new things that way as well so they offer risk-free trial period for 5 days and you can also check out my link in the description below for an additional 20% off an annual subscription which would give you just about half off for the whole year as compared to the month toon price point hope you check it out and enjoy it as much as did so yeah Rachel Carson Silent Spring really was almost like the Catalyst springboard almost kind of like moment for the environmental movement and that was kind of kind of going on little bit in the late 50s and the early 60s kind of to Rally around and this book is all about DDT and how different chemicals that different companies and people have used historically how we don't really know how they always interact in the environment especially like when you combine different things you know lot of these chemicals are studied in isolation not necessarily inter with interactions with each other but yeah this is fairly actual technical book know lot of people talk about it there is lot of numbers lot of chemistry and that sort of stuff is discussed but like said it's it's just such seminal like kind of like Watershed book that feel like it definitely deserves to be read if you want more of like Rachel Carson's like literary stuff her Trilogy is also really really highly regarded and encourage you to read pretty much anything by Rachel Carson you can't go wrong next up we got sentient what animals reveal about our sentences by Jackie Higgins and I'm lucky enough to have sign copy that received think two or three Christmases ago this is all about read this one actually alongside Ed yong's an immense World and the they're kind of on the same topic dealing with like animal senses this one is little bit more slanted towards kind of almost comparisons between human senses and animal senses just thought it was really well done the pros is excellent and like how she goes into not just kind of our traditional senses you know with sight touch smell that sort of thing she goes into those but also other ones such as like balance or like perception of of time and balance or excuse me Pleasure and Pain different things like that plus just first of all look at that cover too meant to mention that like right at the beginning like said Ed Young's immense World probably is like the slightly better of the two as far as like scope and grand scheme of things but honestly think you should read both of them kind of like together and kind of get like kind of the onew punch like said just thoroughly enjoyed it I'd be remiss if didn't bring up any of the Oxford very short introductions got whole like stack of them over there and I've read several on like different biological Concepts see we've done I've done marine biology mammals reptiles climate change Evolution jeez Forest probably whole bunch of others that I'm just like drawing blanks on like Earth system Sciences all kinds of stuff like that found most of the biology ones to be like just really spot on so like said check those out haven't brought them up quite little bit so figur would right there next up is favorite author of mine Carl Safina this one is becoming wild how animal cultures raise families create Beauty and Achieve peace and this book is all about dealing with different animal kind of kinship groups and how the display culture throughout different generations and stuff and as you see on here the maau is one of the groups or excuse me the what do you call it not groups one of the species that he writes about and enjoy how he gives each of the three species the other one is see he talks about sperm whales and also chimpanzees and each species of those three has about third of the book so really enjoy how he usually incorporates couple different groups or different species or different Topics in his books but he gives each of them plenty of space to kind of like be fleshed out to go into plenty of depth like said think this is probably like yeah it's over 100 Pages or so for each species so thoroughly enjoy it and it's all about like said kind of how they display culture and theme of the book too is how humans we as species have always kind of like tried to be like you know we do and that no other species does and that's what makes us special and unique and stuff and it's kind of breaking that down little bit because if you really look into it lot of and are actually shown by other species as well but Carl Safina normally he writes on marine biology like Fisheries different marine species and stuff this is my first one I've read by him dealing with terrestrial stuff and he doesn't lose any of his touch so like said Carl is one of my favorite authors definitely check him out another book that's actually in the short form platform is the nature fix why nature makes us happier healthier and more creative by Florence Williams and this is one that I'm going to use short form to kind of go back through and just kind of data mine all the like really really important stuff read this one long time ago but I'd like to like remember some of the stats and figures and stuff to add to my environmental kind of nature Journal that I'm starting and this is all about how nature actually makes you healthier you know it's been kind of it's definitely been lot more popularized can't remember when this book itself actually came out it was probably at the beginning of that kind of 2007 yeah this is when Forest bathing started you know in traditionally in Japan that's it's been around for long time but in the west that was kind of you know it wasn't much of thing but kind of dealing with all the scientific research of how being around plants being around Greenery being around animals all that kind of stuff you know lowers your blood pressure excuse me blood pressure has different you know physiological effects both physically and mentally and makes people healthier you know already like kind of already thought that was like real though had never actually read anything specifically on like the the data behind it it was more of like an intuitive sort of thing but just super highly enjoyable on that topic if you want to read more about it and then we're going to cap things off with whole slew of books on different kind of evolutionary topics probably like you know the core concept of biology here we got improbable Destinies fate chance and the future of evolution by Jonathan losos I'm also reading book right now called The Heart of the wild that is collection of essays that him and one other person have edited though he also included think he included an essay on dingos if remember correctly so that's been interesting and this book is all about convergent and Divergent Evolution how guess you know different species that aren't really that closely related Converge on the same sort of natural selection sort of applies similar pressures in different envir Ms even though they're not close or related or anything like that and they end up developing very similar behaviors or structures or that sort of thing kind of like ant eaters and pangolins not really closely related at all besides being mammals but have lot of the same sort of Lifestyles and stuff so found that really interesting and he does lot of research on or he does write on lot of his personal research for example dealing with anoli geckos in the Caribbean Isles and that sort of thing and how he kind of goes about it found that always love when scientists include their like you know personal studies just because it's always interesting to me to Le about how do you actually study you know these different plants these different animals these different ecosystems and what it's what it's actually like to be out in the field with them yeah I've read this while ago and thought it was absolutely fantastic and have confirmation from some book friends that they also thought it was fantastic as well so yeah highly encourage you to check it out too next up we have animal weapons the evolution of battle by Douglas emlin and honestly read this think the first couple of months started book Tu way way way back in the day and this book is all about how animals why different pressure such mostly sexual selection different animals have developed just absolutely crazy you know forms or behavior in the shap in the form of like weapons to battle each other with for example like stag beetles having like the giant horns El Irish you know Irish elk having the the huge antlers saber two tigers with their teeth and everything like that why they have like these kind of weird like weapons and offensive modes and defensive tactics and stuff and all the different pressures kind of go into why even if they're not like you know that actual useful in you know quote unquote real life per se different selective pressures kind of push on them to kind of go for those forms and everything like that and thought that was just really interesting and like kind of just like fun take on an evolutionary principle next up we have Darin Comes To Town by meno schilz and this is all about evolutionary pressures inside of urban areas you know humans have really changed the landscape quite literally with lot of different even rural places as well but you know Urban you know cityscapes Urban Development all that sort of stuff effectively creates like new niches and new environments for animals to either be pushed out of or try to thrive in and this book is all about basically in different Urban sites different pressures that have been on these animals for example different birds why they are able to thrive in cities for example you know they are learning to sing at different frequencies so they can be heard above car car noises and car rumbling just kind of like the ambient noise of the Cities getting up at different being active at different times during the day due to all the the light pressures and just even just different behaviors for example some birds just hop like lot of times they won't fly off the road they started to hop right you know just kind of like walk off the road rather than fly largely because it just saves like tons of energy it's something I've kind of thought about little bit but it doesn't it's more like when it's forced upon me just because live in such rural the middle of the woods kind of aspect it takes me three or four 3 hours just to even get to like city per se so it is just like like read book on green cities not too long ago and enjoyed that as well so always like kind of reading about stuff that I'm not really actively like always like around per se but yeah just kind of found it really interesting lot of it too was about how lot of generalist species can thrive in urban environments but lot of the more specialist ones all their niches effectively like disappear due to Urban Development so they have rough time with things and then lastly we have great adaptation star noos moles electric eels and other Tales of Evolutions Mysteries solved by Kenneth katania and this is all about couple of Niche species on Stars MO electric eels think there's some kind of snake can't remember the Snake species off the top of my head but dealing with how they have such weird evolutionary like adapted like organs and behaviors and stuff like the stardos mole you know is like one of the fastest feeders on the planet due to its kind of like weird tentacle You Know nose mouth appendage thing so you kind of learn about how he actually caught bunch kind of his adventures and trying to get them which was its own sort of ordeal but then all the different kind of experiments like he worked with them on to kind of like determine like you know all the different senses all the different abilities and like how fast they actually were on lot of different stuff so found that really interesting you know electric eels you kind of learn all about them as well so found that really really cool can't remember if he goes into the pistol the mantis shrimp as well want to say he did but don't quote me on that one but this one was lot of fun think actually have individual book review on that one so I'll leave that up there as well for you guys to watch if that's your thing so there you have it there's 10 biology books think you will enjoy know did leave comment down below if you have any Biology book recommendations for for me or for others to share and everything like that and always remember whether you're reading biology books or not read victoriously