Question

There are 3 Intros to Biology - which is best to take 7.012, 7.013 or 7.014? also 7.012 & 7.014 follow the freeman text, which has very mixed reviews. Any thought or advice are welcome. Thanks

Answer 1

Which to "take" depends on your interest. They're different versions of the same course and have much basic material in common. 7.012 seems to place more emphasis on cell physiology and medicine while 7.014 has more ecology at the end of it.

I personally think Freeman is a high school text. If you want a college level intro text, I'd refer you to "Molecular Cell Biology" by Harvey Lodish, et al. It doesn't cover ecology or classical genetics, but it covers the rest of the subject very well. If you want a slightly more advanced book which emphasizes biochemistry (and proteins in particular) I recommend "Biochemistry" by Garrett and Grisham.

If you do go with Garrett and Grisham, you can Google it and download a .pdf version someone scanned (quite illegally) and posted for free. Maybe save yourself fifty bucks on Amazon. :D