Timetable and Additional Readings

Hello Internets,

This blog is being written in conjunction with a course being offered by the Department of Biological Sciences at the University of Calgary. What that means is that this is not going to be a slow-paced walk through OTOOS. This will instead be a quick, two-chapter-a-week jog, followed by a few weeks of discussing other papers. Those of us in the course will also have some additional readings, both for general background of the entire text of OTOOS, and also on a week-by-week basis. We'll try to do our best at getting those citations (or links to digital articles) on that week-by-week basis.

Timetable:
Jan 21: Chapters 1-2
Jan 28: Chapters 3-4
Feb 4: Chapters 5-6
Feb 11: Chapters 7-8
Feb 18: Nope
Feb 25: Chapters 9-10
Mar 4: Chapters 11-12
Mar 11: Chapters 13-14
Mar 18: Darwin and the nature of species
Mar 25: The Modern Synthesis and its critics: did Darwin get it right?
Apr 1: Group selection and altruism
Apr 8: Evolution and religion
Apr 15: TBA

General Background Readings:
1) Darwin's Origin of Species: A Biography by Janet Browne. (Available in paperback or hardcover from Amazon)
2) Browne, J. 2008. Birthdays to remember. Nature 456:324-325. (pdf available to Nature subscribers)
3) Bowler, P. J. 2009. Darwin's originality. Science 323 (5911):223-226. (pdf available to Science subscribers/ AAAS members)


Extra Readings (last updated 04-04-09):
Jan 21:
1) Liu, Y. 2005. Darwin and Mendel: who was the pioneer of genetics? Biology Forum / Rivista di Biologia 98 (2):305-322 (pdf available to EBSCO subscribers)

Jan 28:
1) Price, GR. 1995. The Nature of Selection. Journal of Theoretical Biology 175(3):389-396. (pdf here)

Feb 4:
1) Gould, SJ and RC Lewontin. 1979. The spandrels of San Marco and the Panglossian paradigm: a critique of the adaptationist programme. Proceedings of the Royal Society of London. Series B. Biological Sciences 205 (1161):581-598. (pdf available from public domain)

Feb 11:
1) Mallet, J. 2007. Hybrid speciation. Nature 446(7133):279-283. (pdf available to Nature subscribers)

Feb 25:
1) Burchfield, J.D. 1974. Darwin and the dilemma of geological time. Isis 65(3):301-321. (pdf available to JSTOR subscribers)

March 4:
1) Schluter, D. 2009. Evidence for ecological speciation and its alternative. Science 323(5915):737-741 (pdf available to Science/AAAS subscribers)
2) Fitzpatrick, B.M. and M. Turelli. 2006. The geography of mammalian speciation: mixed signals from phylogenies and range maps. Evolution 60(3):601-615 (pdf available to BioOne subscribers)

March 9 (moved forward two days to accomodate some schedules):
1) Dennett, D. C. 1995. Darwin's dangerous idea. Sciences 35(3):34-40 (pdf available to EBSCOhost subscribers here)

Mar 18:
1) Beatty, J. 1986. Speaking of species: Darwin's strategy; pp. 265-283 in D. Kohn (ed.), Darwin's Heritage: A Centenniel Retrospect. Princeton University Press, Princeton. Reprinted as: pp. 227-246 in M. Ereshefsky (ed.) 1992, The Units of Evolution: Essays on the Nature of Species. MIT Press, Cambridge. (pdf available at authors' academic website)

Mar 25:
1) Rose, M. R. and T. H. Oakley. 2007. The new biology: beyond the Modern Synthesis. Biology Direct 2:30. (pdf available)
2) Huxley, J. 1942, 1963. Evolution: The Modern Synthesis. Chapter 1 of First Edition, excerpts from the Introduction of Second Edition.

Apr 1:
1) Ruse, M. 1980. Charles Darwin and group selection. Annals of Science 37:615-630. (pdf)
2) Borrello, M. E. 2005. The rise, fall and resurrection of group selection. Endeavour 29 (1):43-47. (pdf)
3) Bowles, S. 2008. Conflict: altruism's midwife. Nature 456 (7220):326-327. (pdf)

Apr 8:
1) Christ and a Bicycle by Andrew Brown. Apparently delivered as part of his advertising or publicity for his book Darwin Wars: The Scientific Battle for the Soul of Man.
2) Charles Darwin on Religion by John Hedley Brooke, an invited contribution to the website for The International Society for Science & Religion
3) Dawkins, R. 1997. Obscurantism to the rescue. The Quarterly Review of Biology 72(4):397-399. (pdf available)
4) portions of "Natural selection not inconsistent with natural theology", by Asa Grey, as published in the Atlantic Monthly in a series of articles for July, August, and October 1860.

Expect updates as more readings come to light.