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This is a list of important publications in biology, organized by field.
Some reasons why a particular publication might be regarded as important:
- Topic creator – A publication that created a new topic
- Breakthrough – A publication that changed scientific knowledge significantly
- Introduction – A publication that is a good introduction or survey of a topic
- Influence – A publication which has significantly influenced the world
- Latest and greatest – The current most advanced result in a topic
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Blackley, C. H. (1873) Experimental Researches on the Causes and Nature of Catarrhus Aestivus (Hay-Fever or Hay-Asthma), (Oxford Historical Books).
Description: Henry Gray's Anatomy of the Human Body, commonly known as Gray's Anatomy, is an anatomy textbook widely regarded as a classic work on human anatomy. The book was first published under the title Gray's Anatomy: Descriptive and Surgical in Great Britain in 1858, and the following year in the United States. The book's British author died after the publication of the 1860 second edition, at the age of 34, but his much-praised book was continued by others and on November 24, 2004, the 39th British edition was released.
Importance: Influence
- J. D. Watson and F. H. C. Crick (1953), "Molecular structure of nucleic acids" Nature, 171: 737-738.
- C. Bustamante, J. F. Marko, E. D. Siggia, and Steven Smith (1994), "Entropic elasticity of lambda-phage DNA." Science, 265: 1599-1600.
Molecular Biology of the Cell
- Alberts, Bruce; Johnson, Alexander; Lewis, Julian; Raff, Martin; Roberts, Keith; Walter, Peter
- New York, Garland Publishing
- 1983-2002
Description: . This is a must-have introduction to cell biology, suitable for both undergraduates as well as for graduate students. The book covers a wide range of concepts, spanning from the internal organization of cells and molecular genetics - to cellular functions in the larger context of the organism. For beginners, it serves as an excellent introduction to the field of cell and molecular biology. Graduate students and post-graduates may furthermore use this book for refreshing their memory on basic biological principles.
Importance: Introduction.
Genomic Regulatory Systems: Development and Evolution
- E. H. Davidson
- Genomic Regulatory Systems: Development and Evolution (Academic Press, San Diego, CA, 2001).
Description An important work based on a lifetime of solid research in developmental biology. The book is unique because it attempts to give a semi formal theory of regulatory networks as the basis of developmental biology.
Importance: Impact
In silico multicellular systems biology and minimal genomes
- E. Werner
- Drug Discovery Today, Volume 8, Issue 24, 15 December 2003, Pages 1121-1127
- Online version
Description This article presents a new paradigm for understanding multicellular development of organisms. It combines in vivo methods with in silico methods using minimal genomes for multicellular systems. While the article is futuristic, its vision may well dominate future research. It is the next step based on research on minimal genomes for single cell organisms.
Importance: Impact
Description: This book is based on the author two years of living near lake Walden. Thoreau summaries in the book his observations and offers information about the history of nature investigation. Thoreau offers a unique attitude to nature preservation.
Importance: Impact
Description: Until the publication of this encyclopedia the scientific community thought that all animals were created together by God before about 6,000 years. Not only that this 44 volume encyclopedia contained all biological knowledge of its time, it offered different theory. 100 years before Darwin, Buffon claimed that man and ape might have a common ancestor. His work also had significant impact on ecology.
Importance: Topic creator, Breakthrough, Impact
Description: This publication suggested natural selection as the cause of evolution. Wallace was afraid to publish his work due to the church but he sent it to Charles Darwin and help him develop what is somewhat mistakenly called today Darwinism.
Importance: Topic creator, Breakthrough, Impact
Description: The Origin of Species is one of the hallmark works of biology. In it, Darwin details his theory that organisms gradually evolve through natural selection. It was first published on November 24, 1859 and immediately sold out its initial print run. Darwin presents a theory of evolution that is in most aspects identical to the theories now accepted by scientists. He carefully argues out this theory of evolution of species by natural selection by presenting all the accumulated scientific evidence from his voyage on the HMS Beagle in the 1830s.
Importance: Topic creator, Breakthrough, Impact
Description: This book discusses Fisher's fundamental theorem of natural selection
Importance: Impact
The Evolution of Individuality
- Leo W. Buss
- 1987, The Evolution of Individuality, Princeton University Press.
Description: In his book that examines the cell lineage as a unit of selection, Leo Buss addresses the evolutionary conflict between the individuality of cells that make up a metazoan and the metazoan individual itself. In elaborating this idea he presents numerous hypotheses regarding the evolution of animal development and life cycles. He wraps it up by addressing hierarchical organization in biology. It is one of the first texts addressing the idea of the individual in biology, integrating multilevel selection theory (from the macroevolutionists and gene selectionists) with developmental and cell biology. Though heavy on the theory and rather light on the evidence, for anyone interested in evo-devo or macroevolution this should be an essential read.
Importance: Topic creator.
Description: Experiments on Plant Hybridization was the result after years spent studying genetic traits in pea plants. In his paper, Mendel compared seven discrete traits. Through experimentation, Mendel discovered that one inheritable trait would invariably be dominant to its recessive alternative. This model, later known as Mendelian inheritance or Mendelian genetics, provided an alternative to blending inheritance, which was the prevailing theory at the time.
Importance: Topic creator, Breakthrough, Impact
Forel, F.-A. 1892-1902. Le Léman, monegraphie limnologique. Editions Rouges & Cie, Lausanne, Translation D. A.
Description: Discovery of the structure of the DNA molecule.
Importance: Topic creator, Breakthrough, Impact
Description: The basis of the DNA sequencing technique. (Sanger won his second Nobel prize thanks to it).
Importance: Breakthrough, Impact
Description: The manual (to which is often referred simply as the Maniatis) is universally recognized as the best manual for molecular biology techniques. The theory behind the techniques is also discussed in details. It is cited by thousands of publications.
Importance: Impact
- David H. Hubel and Torsten Wiesel (1962) "Receptive fields,, binocular interaction and functional architecture in the cat's visual cortex". Journal of Physiology 160, 106-154.
- "Neuroscience" -- Dale Purves
- "Vision Science: Photons to Phenomenology" -- Stephen E. Palmer
Phylogenetic Systematics
Description: This book popularized the techniques of cladistics in the English-speaking world. It is based on work published in German starting 1950. Willi Hennig is considered the founder of clasdistics, which he developed while working as an entomologist in East Germany.
Importance:
Inferring Phylogenies
- Joseph Felsenstein
- Sinauer Associates, 2003.
Description: An excellent technical manual to guide any biologist wishing to construct a phylogenetic hypothesis.
Importance:
Description: Wilson introduced the term sociobiology as an attempt to explain the evolutionary mechanics behind social behaviors such as altruism, aggression, and nurturance. Wilson's book sparked one of the great scientific controversies in biology of the 20th century.
Importance:
The Myth of Mental Illness: Foundations of a Theory of Personal Conduct
Description: The Myth of Mental Illness: Foundations of a Theory of Personal Conduct is a controversial book by Thomas Szasz. It is highly influential in the anti-psychiatry movement. In it, Szasz argues that mental illness is a social construct created by doctors. What psychiatrists label mental illness is in fact a deviation from the consensus reality, Szasz says.
The book extends the arguments of Szasz's paper The Myth of Mental Illness, first published in 1960. In it, Szasz argues that beliefs cannot be caused by brain disease, although such artifacts as visual defects can.
Importance:
Tracking an object through feature space
- Blaser E, Pylyshyn ZW, Holcombe AO.
- Tracking an object through feature space. Nature. 2000 Nov 9;408(6809):196-9.
Description:
Importnace:
The organization of behavior
Description: Importance:
Perception of shape from shading
Description: Importance:
Phantoms in the Brain
Description: Importance:
Life on a Young Planet: The First Three Billion Years of Evolution on Earth
Description: A very readable yet complete introduction to the early evolution of life.
Importance: Introduction.
The Future and Limits of Systems Biology
Description: A short critical review of key issues in systems biology.
Importance:
Description: In this book Linnaeus partitioned animals into groups - the beginning of Taxonomy.
Importance: Topic creator, Breakthrough, Impact
Description: In these letters, White published his observations on birds near his house.
Importance: Impact
Description: Fabre investigated insects, both in the anatomy level and the behavior level.
Importance: Impact
Description: Importance:
Description: In this book, Aristotle investigated animals. Unfortunately, his investigation was careless in today's standards. For example, he claimed that males have more teeth than female. Only years after, science realized the importance of experiments in the scientific method.
Importance: Topic creator, Impact
Description: Encyclopedia of nature. It included many areas that are not considered to be part of nature sciences today - from geography, botany, zoology to painting. The encyclopedia was also novel with respect to its structure. It was to first book to use references, table of contents and tables of animals characteristics.
Importance: Impact
See also
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