NCSE is pleased to offer a free preview (PDF) of Stephen H. Jenkins's Tools for Critical Thinking in Biology (Oxford University Press, 2015). The preview consists of chapter 8, "From Causes to Consequences: Considering the Weight of Evidence." Causation in biology often takes place through complex webs, Jenkins explains, taking as his central examples "the hypotheses that sea otters are a keystone species in nearshore marine environments and that killer whales caused a crash in the population of sea otters in the Aleutian Islands in the 1990s."
"An expert biologist and wonderful teacher who cares deeply about his students — and now about us, his audience — [Jenkins] has the knack of a science journalist to turn scientific investigation into a series of fascinating stories. In the process of reading about research into the amazing behaviors of a variety of critters, the genetic basis of diseases, and much else, we almost painlessly learn to think critically about claims, evidence, and argument. What emerges is the realization that we don't have to be experts in order to ask intelligent, probing questions," writes Thomas Nickles.