Self-Study Biology: Textbooks & Courses for Beginners

Join the discussion
Ask a follow-up here, or get your own question answered by working scientists, mathematicians and engineers — people, not an autocomplete.
Real named experts · corrections over time · the nuance an AI answer skips
3 replies · 3K views
WeDontBelongHere
Messages
3
Reaction score
0
Hello,

I want to learn biology from stratch for a hobby, I never studied it in school good enough so I want to do it now, should I go through entire Campbell Biology to grasp basic stuff?
I want to note that I want to focus on bioinformatics as I progress
One more thing to note is that I want to do as many biology experiments(I don't mind even going through books for kids as I can, and I want to actually understand science behind them, not just do the experiments and voilà!

So based on description of my current knowledge (zero), my goals (bioinformatics), wishes(experiments), what textbooks/courses would you recommend to me?
 
on Phys.org
Two points:
If you have not done HS Chemistry, consider getting into that first. One of the first things you encounter in Biology is the cell concept and its structure and chemical comoponents - which starts by assuming you know about polymers, fats, chemical bonds and so on.

You may have some sort of idea what a proteins and lipids are, for example. But it probably is not in terms of you furthering your understanding of cell membranes.

Campbell is fine - get a used one from Amazon - 10th Edition.
 
jim mcnamara said:
Two points:
If you have not done HS Chemistry, consider getting into that first. One of the first things you encounter in Biology is the cell concept and its structure and chemical comoponents - which starts by assuming you know about polymers, fats, chemical bonds and so on.

You may have some sort of idea what a proteins and lipids are, for example. But it probably is not in terms of you furthering your understanding of cell membranes.

Campbell is fine - get a used one from Amazon - 10th Edition.
Yeah I'll definitely go for Campbell then.
 
Hello) I am studying for my Bachelor of Biological in University of Houston Downtown. Here is very good courses to everyone.

[moderator note: promotional info removed.]
 
Last edited by a moderator: