Customer Reviews:
Total reviews: 62
Average rating: 4.5 of 5
Editorial Review:
For nearly a quarter century Molecular Biology of the Cell has been the leading cell biology textbook. This tradition continues with the new Fifth Edition, which has been completely revised and updated to describe our current, rapidly advancing understanding of cell biology. To list but a few examples, a large amount of new material is presented on epigenetics; stem cells; RNAi; comparative genomics; the latest cancer therapies; apoptosis (now its own separate chapter); and cell cycle control and the mechanics of M phase (now integrated into one chapter). The hallmark features of Molecular Biology of the Cell have been retained, such as its consistent and comprehensive art program, clear concept headings, and succinct section summaries. Additionally, in response to extensive feedback from readers, the Fifth Edition now includes several new features. It is now more portable. Chapters 1-20 are printed and Chapters 21-25, covering multicellular systems, are provided as pdf files on the free Media DVD-ROM which accompanies the book.* And for the first time, Molecular Biology of the Cell now contains end-of-chapter questions. These problems, written by John Wilson and Tim Hunt, emphasize a quantitative approach and the art of reasoning from experiments, and -they will help students review and extend their knowledge derived from reading the textbook. The Media DVD-ROM, which is packaged with every copy of the book, contains PowerPoint® presentations with all of the figures, tables and micrographs from the text (available as JPEGs too). Also included is the Media Player, which plays over 125 movies—animations, videos, and molecular models—all with voiceover narration. A new reader-friendly feature is the integration of media codes throughout the text that link directly to relevant videos and animations. The Media DVD-ROM holds the multicellular systems chapters (21-25) of the text as well. By skillfully extracting the fundamental concepts from this enormous and ever-growing field, the authors tell the story of cell biology, and thereby create a coherent framework through which readers may approach and enjoy this subject that is so central to all of biology. * There is also a reference edition of Molecular Biology of the Cell, Fifth Edition (ISBN 978-0-8153-4111-6) that contains Chapters 1-25 entirely in printed format.
Bruce Alberts, Dennis Bray, Karen Hopkin, Alexander Johnson, Julian Lewis, Martin Raff, Keith Roberts, Peter Walter
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Customer Reviews:
Total reviews: 27
Average rating: 4.5 of 5
Very good book 5 out of 5 stars.
0 of 0 people found this review helpful.
It's kind of hard to judge a textbook, especially when you're a student. But i can honestly say that this book is very straight forward. The diagrams are great, and especially if you read the diagrams as you're reading the book, they add a lot of depth and diversity to the reading. The text itself is not mundane...you won't fall asleep reading it. The CD it comes with is nice....but i tend not to use it that much...all it is, is just video clips. Overall i'd say this is one of the best, if not THE best, biology book i've used.
HOWEVER! Remember that this IS a bio book and it DOES get a little tedious at points
Editorial Review:
Essential Cell Biology, Second Edition contains basic, core knowledge about how cells work. It has a proven track record in providing students with a conceptual and accessible grounding in cell biology. The text and figures have been prepared to be easy-to-follow, accurate, clear and engaging for the introductory student. Each section follows logically from the previous one, telling a story, rather than being a collection of facts. Questions integrated throughout each chapter encourage the reader to pause, think about what they have read, and attempt to apply the new knowledge in ways that test their understanding. Based on user feedback, the Second Edition now offers increased coverage of genetics and more experimental background. It is completely up-to-date.
Customer Reviews:
Total reviews: 1064
Average rating: 4.0 of 5
Guns, Germs & Steel 5 out of 5 stars.
0 of 0 people found this review helpful.
I believe there are few individuals (I'm talking especially about laypeople like myself here) who won't benefit from reading Guns, Germs and Steel. While Diamond's hypothesis may not necessarily represent the *complete* picture, may be biased, and may not be indisputable, it indeed "lays a foundation for understanding human history" as Bill Gates reviewed it.
Diamond provides a convincing, well-worded argument leading the reader to believe geographical differences between continents played a major role in shaping the fates of human societies, at the very least.
Editorial Review:
Explaining what William McNeill called The Rise of the West has become the central problem in the study of global history. In Guns, Germs, and Steel Jared Diamond presents the biologist's answer: geography, demography, and ecological happenstance. Diamond evenhandedly reviews human history on every continent since the Ice Age at a rate that emphasizes only the broadest movements of peoples and ideas. Yet his survey is binocular: one eye has the rather distant vision of the evolutionary biologist, while the other eye--and his heart--belongs to the people of New Guinea, where he has done field work for more than 30 years.
Customer Reviews:
Total reviews: 285
Average rating: 4.5 of 5
Editorial Review:
Inheriting the mantle of revolutionary biologist from Darwin, Watson, and Crick, Richard Dawkins forced an enormous change in the way we see ourselves and the world with the publication of The Selfish Gene. Suppose, instead of thinking about organisms using genes to reproduce themselves, as we had since Mendel's work was rediscovered, we turn it around and imagine that "our" genes build and maintain us in order to make more genes. That simple reversal seems to answer many puzzlers which had stumped scientists for years, and we haven't thought of evolution in the same way since.
Why are there miles and miles of "unused" DNA within each of our bodies? Why should a bee give up its own chance to reproduce to help raise her sisters and brothers? With a prophet's clarity, Dawkins told us the answers from the perspective of molecules competing for limited space and resources to produce more of their own kind. Drawing fascinating examples from every field of biology, he paved the way for a serious re-evaluation of evolution. He also introduced the concept of self-reproducing ideas, or memes, which (seemingly) use humans exclusively for their propagation. If we are puppets, he says, at least we can try to understand our strings. --Rob Lightner
Customer Reviews:
Total reviews: 65
Average rating: 4.5 of 5
Editorial Review:
Oliver Sacks on Your Inner Fish Since the 1970 publication of Migraine, neurologist Oliver Sacks's unusual and fascinating case histories of "differently brained" people and phenomena--a surgeon with Tourette's syndrome, a community of people born totally colorblind, musical hallucinations, to name a few--have been marked by extraordinary compassion and humanity, focusing on the patient as much as the condition. His books include The Man Who Mistook His Wife for a Hat, Awakenings (which inspired the Oscar-nominated film), and 2007's Musicophilia. He lives in New York City, where he is Professor of Clinical Neurology at Columbia University.
Customer Reviews:
Total reviews: 2
Average rating: 4.5 of 5
Editorial Review:
Through six editions, Thompson & Thompson's Genetics in Medicine has been a well-established favorite textbook on this fascinating and rapidly evolving field, integrating the classic principles of human genetics with modern molecular genetics to help you understand a wide range of genetic disorders. The 7th edition incorporates the latest advances in molecular diagnostics, the Human Genome Project, and much more. More than 240 dynamic illustrations and high-quality photos help you grasp complex concepts more easily. In addition to the book, you will also receive STUDENT CONSULT, enabling you to access the complete contents of the book online, anywhere you go!
Acquire the state-of-the-art knowledge you need on the latest advances in molecular diagnostics, the Human Genome Project, pharmacogenetics, and bio-informatics.
Better understand the relationship between basic genetics and clinical medicine with a variety of clinical case studies.
Recognize a wide range of genetic disorders with visual guidance from more than 240 dynamic illustrations and high-quality photos.
Access the complete contents of the book online, fully searchable with STUDENT CONSULT. You'll find "Integration Links" to bonus content in other STUDENT CONSULT titles · content clipping for handheld devices · an interactive community center with a wealth of additional resources · quarterly updates on the material · USMLE questions · and much more!
Customer Reviews:
Total reviews: 4
Average rating: 5.0 of 5
Editorial Review:
One of the world's leading neuroscientists explores how best to understand the human condition by examining the biological, psychological, and highly social nature of our species within the social context of our lives.
What happened along the evolutionary trail that made humans so unique? In his widely accessible style, Michael Gazzaniga looks to a broad range of studies to pinpoint the change that made us thinking, sentient humans, different from our predecessors.
Neuroscience has been fixated on the life of the psychological self for the past fifty years, focusing on the brain systems underlying language, memory, emotion, and perception. What it has not done is consider the stark reality that most of the time we humans are thinking about social processes, comparing ourselves to and estimating the intentions of others. In Human, Gazzaniga explores a number of related issues, including what makes human brains unique, the importance of language and art in defining the human condition, the nature of human consciousness, and even artificial intelligence.
Customer Reviews:
Total reviews: 44
Average rating: 4.0 of 5
review on STUDY GUIDE 1 out of 5 stars.
16 of 28 people found this review helpful.
after being utterly discusted with this poor excuse of a study guide, i thought i would read some horrible reviews on the guide to make me feel better. to my dismay, people can't read and they only posted reviews for the text book, which is actually good but those reviews should be posted elsewhere.
You know there is something wrong with this guide when you see them call CH3-CH3 methane (pg 3 not to mention they got linoleic and linolenic mixed up) or on the multiple choice on page 19 has ribosomes as one of the right answers for proteins involved in transcription.
i have not done a lot of the questions in the book and all ready i see errors on every second page. i wonder if i will actually recieve lower grades if i study from this poorly written book.
I love study guides and have used them for stewert's calculus, campbell's biology and bruice's organic chemistry in college. were there some occasional mistakes... yes but overall they were good. this study manual however seems to have been written by a tribe of wild monkeys pounding on a keyboard. Save your 23 dollars
Customer Reviews:
Total reviews: 206
Average rating: 4.5 of 5
Where spirituality explains science. 5 out of 5 stars.
4 of 4 people found this review helpful.
Lipton's book turns our understanding of the world inside out: it is not the DNA inside the cells that controls them, but the interaction of the outer cell membrane receptors with their environment. Starting from what is known and accepted, the author extrapolates to what transcends accepted science. Along the way he presents to the reader a thorough description of cell biology. It is all quite remarkable, but will you dare follow where he leads? How the mind affects the body's health? The effect that mother's emotions have over the development of the fetus? How some hydrocephalic children have high IQs although they lack most of their physical brain?
And then there is the matter of matter. The author points out that everything in the universe consists of atoms, and atoms are made out of [electrons and quarks] invisible energy not tangible matter. And since all energy in the universe should be describable by one mathematical expression, everything is inter-related, everything communicates with everything else. One could follow many paths from here, but Lipton concentrates on how our personal beliefs affect our physical cells: how many of these beliefs, formed from as early as our fetus days, lie hidden in our unconscious only to surface unexpectedly and affect our cells in completely mysterious ways.
The author saves most of his personal conclusions for the epilogue: a discussion of our conscious selves, our personal relationship with everything else in our environment (which he calls the Divine), and mankind's next step up the evolution ladder. He concludes that "The survival of the Most Loving is the only ethic that will ensure not only a healthy personal life but also a healthy planet." He thus joins the considerable number of scientists who have discovered that the effect of love exceeds the boundaries of religion and should be treated as a real and potent power in the universe.
(The writer is the author of The Way of the Butterfly: A Scientific Speculation on God and the Hereafterand of "Christianity Without Fairy Tales: When Science And Religion Merge.")
Editorial Review:
The Biology of Belief is a groundbreaking work in the field of New Biology. Author Dr. Bruce Lipton is a former medical school professor and research scientist. His experiments, and those of other leading-edge scientists, have examined in great detail the processes by which cells receive information. The implications of this research radically change our understanding of life. It shows that genes and DNA do not control our biology; that instead DNA is controlled by signals from outside the cell, including the energetic messages emanating from our positive and negative thoughts. Dr. Lipton's profoundly hopeful synthesis of the latest and best research in cell biology and quantum physics is being hailed as a major breakthrough showing that our bodies can be changed as we retrain our thinking.
Customer Reviews:
Total reviews: 3
Average rating: 4.0 of 5
Amazing Intro Book on Genetics 5 out of 5 stars.
17 of 18 people found this review helpful.
This book provides a wonderful and comprehensive introduction to genetics. I'm not a biology major, but I found that this book is both entertaining and informative. The author describes a wide panoramic view on the genetics, and yet addresses the fundamental concepts in genetics in very clear manner. DNA structure, replication, transcription to RNA, RNA processing, and RNA translation (a.k.a. the central dogma) have been very hard to comprehend and visualize, yet the author explains it very well. Numerous detailed illustrations in the book really helps to clarify the central dogma.
All chapters start with VERY compelling REAL-WORLD cases that tantalizes you on learning the subject presented in the chapter. That makes me wanting to read for more. The writing is concise and clear. The author clearly knows his stuff.
Overall, it is a great intro book. Great for both self-learners and in-class students. Definitely a must buy for those who want to get acquainted in genetics.
For in depth contents: The book seems to be divided into four parts.
1. It starts with principles of classical (Mendelian) genetics with its applications on chapter 1. Then it goes into cell structures, functions, and reproduction with chapter 2-4. Followed by heredity principles of reproduction and how classical genetics fit into the analysis of hereditary traits. The next chapter discusses how classical genetics is not enough -- the author presents compelling cases like lethal alleles, incomplete penetration, and so forth in chapter 5-6. This limitation brings forth extensions and modifications on the basic principles, which is also discussed. The author also discusses other analyses to detect hereditary traits, such as pedigree analysis.
2. The second part is more toward modern genetics: How genes are not independently assorted as the Mendelian principles dictates. The concept of linkage, recombination, and consequently gene mapping are discussed in chapter 7. Followed by Chapter 8 is sort of intermezzo on bacterial and viral genetic systems.
3. The third part is the meat of the book:
Chapter 9 discusses what chromosomes are and how chromosomes abnormalities occur and what type of abnormalities.
Chapter 10 discusses about DNA and RNA structure, followed by chromosome structure in chapter 11.
Chapter 12 discusses DNA replication and recombination with detailed illustrations.
Chapter 13 discusses transcription process, followed by chapter 14 on RNA molecules and processing.
Chapter 15 discusses about genetic code and translation, followed by chapter 16: Gene expression.
Chapter 17 discusses gene mutations and DNA repair.
4. The fourth part is "elective" part:
Chapter 18: Recombinant DNA technolocy
Chapter 19: Genomics (Structural, Functional, and Comparative)
Chapter 20: Organelle DNA
Chapter 21: Various advanced topics
Chapter 22: Quantitative Genetics (very basic single locus regression as an intro)
Chapter 23: Population and Evolutionary Genetics
Your Inner Fish is my favorite sort of book--an intelligent, exhilarating, and compelling scientific adventure story, one which will change forever how you understand what it means to be human. The field of evolutionary biology is just beginning an exciting new age of discovery, and Neil Shubin's research expeditions around the world have redefined the way we now look at the origins of mammals, frogs, crocodiles, tetrapods, and sarcopterygian fish--and thus the way we look at the descent of humankind. One of Shubin's groundbreaking discoveries, only a year and a half ago, was the unearthing of a fish with elbows and a neck, a long-sought evolutionary "missing link" between creatures of the sea and land-dwellers. My own mother was a surgeon and a comparative anatomist, and she drummed it into me, and into all of her students, that our own anatomy is unintelligible without a knowledge of its evolutionary origins and precursors. The human body becomes infinitely fascinating with such knowledge, which Shubin provides here with grace and clarity. Your Inner Fish shows us how, like the fish with elbows, we carry the whole history of evolution within our own bodies, and how the human genome links us with the rest of life on earth. Shubin is not only a distinguished scientist, but a wonderfully lucid and elegant writer; he is an irrepressibly enthusiastic teacher whose humor and intelligence and spellbinding narrative make this book an absolute delight. Your Inner Fish is not only a great read; it marks the debut of a science writer of the first rank. (Photo © Elena Seibert) A Note from Author Neil Shubin This book grew out of an extraordinary circumstance in my life. On account of faculty departures, I ended up directing the human anatomy course at the University of Chicago medical school. Anatomy is the course during which nervous first-year medical students dissect human cadavers while learning the names and organization of most of the organs, holes, nerves, and vessels in the body. This is their grand entrance to the world of medicine, a formative experience on their path to becoming physicians. At first glance, you couldn't have imagined a worse candidate for the job of training the next generation of doctors: I'm a fish paleontologist. It turns out that being a paleontologist is a huge advantage in teaching human anatomy. Why? The best roadmaps to human bodies lie in the bodies of other animals. The simplest way to teach students the nerves in the human head is to show them the state of affairs in sharks. The easiest roadmap to their limbs lies in fish. Reptiles are a real help with the structure of the brain. The reason is that the bodies of these creatures are simpler versions of ours. During the summer of my second year leading the course, working in the Arctic, my colleagues and I discovered fossil fish that gave us powerful new insights into the invasion of land by fish over 375 million years ago. That discovery and my foray into teaching human anatomy led me to a profound connection. That connection became this book. 
