<p> Summer Reading, Biological Sciences Freshers, 2017</p><p>First of all, congratulations on your recent exam results and on gaining your place at Oxford. Nathalie, Cedric and I are looking forward to meeting you again in October and welcoming you into the academic community at Wadham. In the meantime, there are a couple of things that we’d like you to do. </p><p>1. Some reading. We have chosen not to recommend textbooks for your reading over the summer. Rather we suggest you choose from a selection of books that should help you think broadly about aspects of biology. Note that there are several editions available for some of these books but do not worry if you have a different edition of any of these titles. Happy reading!</p><p> a. David Quammen Song of the Dodo b. Richard Dawkins The Blind Watchmaker c. Stephen Jay Gould. Wonderful Life d. Jonathan Weinder The Beak of the Finch e. Elizabeth Kolbert The Sixth Extinction: An Unnatural History f. Andreas Wagner Arrival of the Fittest: Solving Evolution’s Greatest Puzzle g. Mark Henderson 50 Genetics Ideas You Really Need to Know. h. James Watson The Double Helix i. Philip Ball. The self-made tapestry: pattern formation in Nature j. Richard Dawkins. The Ancestor's Tale k. Jared Diamond. The Third Chimpanzee l. Helen Bynum and William Bynum Remarkable Plants That Shape Our World</p><p>2. Some thinking and writing. We’d like you to write a short essay (three or four sides should suffice) that comments from the biologist’s perspective on the famous quip, made in the early 20th century by Sir Ernest Rutherford, that ‘All science is either physics or stamp collecting’. </p><p>Please bring your essay with you when you come in October or, if you wish to and if you prefer to type it, you can e-mail it to me at [email protected]. We can discuss your thoughts on this when you get here.</p><p>Ian Moore, Nathalie Seddon and Cedric Tan</p>