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Gale Rhodes
The Well-Read Biochemist is a collection of supplementary readings - stories, poems, and essays - for an introductory biochemistry course. The readings and my use of them are described in "The Well-Read Biochemist", Journal of Chemical Education, Vol. 73, 732-4 (August, 1996). Below is the reading list.
NOTE: This page is the last vestige of an older version of The Well-Read Biochemist, but it contains the most complete list of the literary works in the collection. Comments that formerly appeared on this page have been expanded and linked directly to the Biochemistry Topics page, and to the READ links below.
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Topic: Course introduction; Thinking about
scientific (and other kinds of) thinking.
Readings:
"Fact, Law, and Theory: Ways of Thinking in Science and Literature,"
Gale Rhodes and Robert Schaible, Journal of College Science Teaching,
XVIII (#4), pp. 228-232, 288, (1989). READ
"The Poetry of Science," John Timpane, Scientific American, July
1991, p. 128.
"The Abacus and the Rose," Jacob Bronowski, in Science and Human
Values, New York: Harper Torch Books, 1965. READ
Topic: Life's origins.
Reading: "A Shropshire Lad," A. E. Housman. READ
Topic: ΔG =ΔH - TΔS,
rubber bands, and protein folding.
Reading: "Identity," A. R. Ammons, in The Selected Poems, Expanded
Edition, New York: Norton, 1986, p 27-29. READ
Topic: Amino acids
Reading: "Technical Error", in Reach for Tommorow, Arthur
C. Clarke, Ballantine Books, 1956.
Topic: Comparing protein sequences; phylogenetic
trees
Reading: "Worm for a Century, and All Seasons," in Hen's Teeth and
Horse's Toes, Stephen Jay Gould, New York: W. W. Norton and Company,
1983, pp. 120-133. READ
Topic: Myglobin, hemoglobin, and oxygen
transport
Reading: "Jerry-Built Forever," Roald Hoffmann, Gaps and Verges,
Orlando: Univesity of Central Florida Press, pp. 27-30 READ
Topic: Enzyme kinetics, mathematical models
of enzyme action
Reading: "When I Heard the Learned Astronomer," Walt Whitman,
collected in Science and the Human Spirit: Contexts for Writing and
Learning, Fred D. White, Belmont, CA: Wadsworth Publishing Company,
1989, p. 271. READ
Topic: Membranes
Readings: "In Need of Mending" and "Corral," Roald Hoffmann, Gaps and
Verges, Orlando: Univesity of Central Florida Press, 1990, pp.
64-65, 85-86.
Topic: Bioenergetics and metabolism
Readings:
"Heaven and Earth in Jest," in Pilgrim at Tinker Creek, Annie
Dillard, New York: Bantam Books, Inc., pp. 1-14. READ
"Mechanism," A. R. Ammons, in The Selected Poems, Expanded Edition,
New York: Norton, 1986, pp. 21-22.
Topic: Central metabolic pathways
Reading: "Carbon," in The Periodic Table, Primo Levi, New York:
Schocken Books, 1984, pp. 224-233. READ
Topic: Mitochondrial metabolism
Readings: "Organelles as Organisms," in The Lives of a Cell, Lewis
Thomas, New York: Bantam New Age Books, 1974, pp. 81-87; "A Biologist
Whose Heresy Redraws the Tree of Life," Jeanne McDermott,
Smithsonian, 20 (#5), pp. 192-197, (1989).
Topic: Photosynthesis
Reading: "Photosynthesis," A. R. Ammons, in The Selected Poems,
Expanded Edition, New York: Norton, 1986, p. 74.
Topic: Mutations and genetic diseases
Reading: "The Wonderful Mistake," Lewis Thomas, The Medusa and the Snail,
New York, Bantam New Age Books, pp. 22-24.
Topic: The Five Senses
Reading:
Jorge Luis Borges, "Borges and I," in Labyrinths:
Selected Stories and Other Writings, New York:
New Directions, 1964, pp. 246-47. READ
Topic: Farewells
Readings:
"Instruments of Darkness" (excerpt), in The Night Country, Loren
Eiseley, New York: Charles Scribner's Sons, 1971, pp. 51-53.
"Cascadilla Falls," A. R. Ammons, in The Selected Poems, Expanded
Edition, New York: Norton, 1986, p. 62.
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