The following is a list of recommended texts for the first-year modules on each subject and some additional reading to spark interest. For Natural Sciences, we recommend you wait until you arrive at Nottingham before deciding which to buy. All texts are available from the library and many can be accessed online.

Archeology 

Greene, K. & Moore, T., Archaeology: An Introduction, London: Routledge (5th edition, 2010) 

Hunter, J. & Ralston, I., The Archaeology of Britain. An introduction from the Upper Palaeolithic to the Industrial Revolution, London & New York: Routledge 1999 (also 2011 edition) 

Johnson, M., Archaeological Theory: An Introduction. Wiley Blackwell (2019) 

Renfrew, C. & Bahn, P, Archaeology: Theories, Methods and Practice, London: Thames & Hudson (7th ed, 2016) 

Other possible reading: 

Fagan, B.M., The Complete Ice Age: how climate changed the world. Thames & Hudson (2009) 

Gamble, C, Gowlett, J & Dunbar, R.I.M. Thinking Big: how the evolution of social life shaped the human mind. Thames & Hudson (2014) 

Roberts, N., The Holocene: An Environmental History. Wiley Blackwell (2014) 

Stringer, C., Homo Britannicus: the incredible story of human life in Britain. Penguin (2007) 

Wrangham, R.W., Catching Fire: how cooking made us human. Basic Books (2010) 

Biology 

Useful texts depend upon modules being taken 

Alberts, B., et al. 2013. Essential Cell Biology 4th ed. Garland Science 

Campbell, N.A 2018. Biology: a global approach 11th ed. Pearson 

Hames, B.D., & Hooper, N.M. 2011. Biochemistry 4th ed. Garland Science 

Hartwell, L 2018. Genetics: From Genes to Genomes 6th ed. McGraw-Hill 

Other Possible Reading 

Crichton, M., Jurassic Park Arrow (1993) - A great introduction to molecular biology, behaviour and chaos theory 

Dawkins, R, The Selfish Gene, Oxford: Oxford University Press (1989) 

Dawkins, R., The Extended Phenotype; the gene as a unit of selection, Oxford: Oxford University Press (1982),  

Roberts, A., The Incredible Unlikeliness of Being: Evolution and the Making of Us, London: Heron Books (2015) – good for students on the evolutionary biology and ecology specialism 

Skloot, R., The Immortal Life of Henrietta Lacks, New York: Crown Publishers (2010) 

Carson, R., Silent Spring, Boston: Houghton Miffin (2002) – good for students on the evolutionary biology and ecology specialism 

‘Superior: The Return of Race Science’ by Angela Saini (Note: More genetics, but does influence how we do our research and is very current.) 

Cancer Sciences 

Hanahan, D & Weinberg, R.A. 2011. Hallmarks of Cancer: The Next Generation, Cell Vol 144, Issue 5 4 March 2011, pp646-674 

Lee, R., Abramson, J. & Goldsby, R.A. 2019 Case Studies in Cancer. W.W. Norton & Company 

Weinberg, R.A. 2013 The Biology of Cancer 2nd Ed. Garland Science 

Chemistry 

Atkins P. W., De Paula J. & Keeler, J. 2018. Atkins’ Physical Chemistry 11th ed. Oxford University Press 

Clayden J., Greeves N. and Warren S. 2012 Organic Chemistry 2nd ed. Oxford University Press 

Weller, M.T. 2018 Inorganic Chemistry 7th ed. Oxford University Press 

Additional useful texts: 

Burrows, A. 2017 Chemistry3: introducing inorganic, organic and physical chemistry 3rd ed. Oxford University Press.  

Monk, P. & Munro, L.J. 2010. Maths for Chemistry: A Chemist’s Toolkit of Calculations. 2nd ed. Oxford University Press 

Winter, M.J. 2016. Chemical Bonding 2nd ed. Oxford University Press 

Winter, M.J. 2015. d-Block Chemistry 2nd ed. Oxford University Press 

Earth Science 

Useful texts depend upon modules being taken 

Heywood, D.I., Cornelius, S & Carver, S. 2011. An Introduction to Geographical Information Systems 4th ed. Prentice Hall 

Jacobson, M. & Butcher, S. 2000 Earth system science: from biogeochemical cycles to global change 2nd ed. Elsevier Academic Press 

Langmuir, C.H. 2012. How to build a habitable planet: the story of the Earth from the big bang to humankind. Princeton University Press 

Lavers, C. 2001 Why Elephants have big ears: understanding patterns of life on Earth. Phoenix 

Marshak, S. 2019. Earth: Portrait of a Planet 6th ed. W.W. Norton & Company 

McGrew. T.J, Alspector-Kelly, M. & Allhoff, F. 2009. The Philosophy of Science: a historical anthology. Wiley-Blackwell 

Toghill, P. 2000. The Geology of Britain: an introduction. Airlife 

Ecosystem & Environment 

Useful texts depend upon modules being taken 

Barry, R.G. & Chorley, R.J. 2003 Atmosphere, Weather and Climate 8th ed. Routledge 

Begon, C.R., Townsend, C.R. & Harper, J.L. 2006. Ecology: from individuals to ecosystems 4th ed. Blackwell 

Davies, N.B., Krebs, J.R. & West, S.A. 2012. An introduction to behavioural ecology 4th ed. Wiley-Blackwell 

Fortey, R.J. 2010. The Hidden landscape: a journey into the geological past. Bodley Head 

Holden, J. 2017. An Introduction to Physical Geography and the Environment 4th ed. Pearson 

Jacob, D.J. 1999 Introduction to Atmospheric Chemistry. Princeton University Press 

Lavers, C. 2001 Why Elephants have big ears: understanding patterns of life on Earth. Phoenix 

Marshak, S. 2019. Earth: Portrait of a Planet 6th ed. W.W. Norton & Company 

McGrew. T.J, Alspector-Kelly, M. & Allhoff, F. 2009. The Philosophy of Science: a historical anthology. Wiley-Blackwell 

Toghill, P. 2000. The Geology of Britain: an introduction. Airlife 

Townsend, C.R., Begon, M. & Harper, J.L. 2008. Essentials of Ecology 3rd ed. Blackwell Publishing 

Mathematics 

Alcock, L. 2014. How to think about analysis. Oxford University Press 

Hirst, K.E. 1995. Numbers, Sequences and Series. Arnold 

Spivak, M. 2006. Calculus 3rd Ed. Cambridge University Press 

Wrede, R.C. & Spiegel, M.R. 2010. Schaum’s outline of advanced calculus 3rd Ed. McGraw-Hill 

Programming Texts 

Hetland, M.L. 2017. Beginning Python: From Novice to Professional 3rd Ed. Apress. 

Hill, C. 2015. Learning Scientific Programming with Python. Cambridge University Press 

Romano, F. 2018. Learning Python Programming 2nd Ed. Packt Publishing Limited. 

Sweigart, A. 2015. Automate the boring stuff with Python: practical programming for total beginners. No Starch Press 

Physics 

Physics The School of Physics and Astronomy provide students with an electronic copy of the below book. 

Knight, R. 2016. Physics for scientists and engineers: A Strategic Approach. 4th ed. Pearson  

Additional useful texts: 

Lambourne, R.J. & Tinker, M. 2000. Basic Mathematics for the Physical Sciences. Wiley 

Lambourne, R.J. & Tinker, M. 2000. Further Mathematics for the Physical Sciences. J. Wiley 

Riley, K.F., and Hobson, M.P. (2011) Foundation Mathematics for the Physical Sciences. Cambridge University Press 

Psychology 

Useful texts depend upon modules being taken 

Anderson, J.R. 2010 Cognitive Psychology and its implications 7th ed. Worth Publishers 

Bruce, V., Green, P.R. & Georgeson, M.A. 2003. Visual Perception: Physiology, psychology & Ecology 4th Ed. Psychology Press. 

Carlson, N.R. & Birkett, M.A. 2017. Physiology of Behaviour 12th ed. Pearson 

Eysenck, M.W. & Keane, M.T. 2010. Cognitive Psychology: a student’s handbook 6th ed. Psychology press 

Hogg, M.a. & Vaughan, G.M. 2018. Social Psychology 8th ed. Pearson 

Mitchell, P. & Ziegler, F. 2013. Fundamentals of Developmental Psychology 2nd ed. Psychology Press 

Faculty of Science

Natural Sciences

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