The Provost, Council of Undergraduate Deans and the Office of College Houses and Academic Services announced last week that Neil Shubin's Your Inner Fish: A Journey Into the 3.5 Billion-Year History of the Human Body will be the reading for the 2008-2009 Penn Reading Project. All incoming freshmen will read the book for the Class of 2012 New Student Orientation.
Shubin, a Biology professor at Penn from 1989 to 2000 as well as a renowned paleontologist and anatomy professor, wrote the book after discovering "Tiktaalik," a prehistoric crocodile-like animal that may represent a missing link in the theory of evolution. The book raises questions of origins, development and human existence.
The reading project this year is a part of the Year of Evolution, a commemoration of Charles Darwin's 200th birthday. Past books include The Omnivore's Dilemma by Michael Pollan and Free Culture by Lawrence Lessig.
