Biology: Scientific Process & Social Issues

"This is a time of enormous change in the life sciences, and today's students need to appreciate science as an ongoing process. Using colorful and interesting examples ranging from medicine and cell biology to evolution and ecology, this book gives the reader a real feel for the dynamic process of science and conveys a clear sense of how discoveries are made. Together with its treatment of important ethical issues, this well written book will make a major contribution to teaching introductory biology." -- Geoffrey M. Cooper, Professor of Biology and Chair, Department of Biology, Boston University

Garland E. Allen, Ph.D. (Harvard University) is professor of biology at Washington University in St. Louis where he has taught introductory biology to majors and non-majors for over 25 years. He has also taught at Harvard University and has been the Sarton Lecturer at the AAAS. He is the author of T.H. Morgan, the Man and His Science, Life Science in the Twentieth Century, and co-author with Jeffrey J.W. Baker of The Study of Biology, a series of basic biology texts for college and university students. He is presently serving as co-editor of the Journal of the History of Biology. Dr. Allen is an expert on the history of genetics and the misuse of genetics that resulted in the eugenics movement in the early twentieth century. He lectures to scientific and general audiences and has been involved in teaching courses at the Marine Biological Laboratory in Woods Hole, Massachusettes, where he served as a trustee for eight years, and at the Jackson Laboratory in Bar Harbor, Maine.

Jeffrey J.W. Baker taught for many years at Wesleyan University in Middletown, Connecticut and has held faculty positions at Washington University in St. Louis, The George Washington University, the University of Puerto Rico, and the University of Virginia. Professor Baker is the author or co-author with Dr. Allen of more than a doozen books in the biological sciences, a book on the American Civil War, and two science-related children's books, one of which was selected by the New York Times Book Review as one of the ten best of the year. He has written extensively concerning modern day conflicts between science and religion and was invited to present his views at the Pontifical Academy of Science in the Vatican. Now retired from teaching but still actively writing and lecturing, Professor Baker divides his time between residences in central Virginia and the Island of Vieques, Puerto Rico.