The Ideas of Biology

I found a four dollar copy of this book at my hometown used book store. I read it on the plane coming back. It's slim, only 160 pages, and I thoroughly enjoyed every paragraph. Bonner explains in the beginning that Biology, more than most sciences, is a large collection of facts. Students are often so overwhelmed by the memorization of these facts that they are unable to synthesize the important concepts. Bonner then takes us on a journey through the Cell, Evolution, Genetics, and Development, and finally a description of how life is built from the simple to the complex, which brings us to ecology and conservation. I highly recommend this for the biology student who wants to gel all the information you've learned into a coherent narrative. This discussion of what the science of life really *means* is very helpful, and beautifully written. Though the science, being from 1962, is clearly a little behind the bleeding edge, these "big ideas" haven't changed much.