Book Description

An Introduction to Chemistry for Biology Students, Eighth Edition is a unique workbook designed to teach readers the basic concepts of chemistry that are essential for success in the life sciences. Today's biology research places an increasing emphasis on the chemical processes that underlie critical biological functions. This workbook helps readers master all the basic facts, concepts, and terminology of chemistry they need to understand those processes.Atomic Structure, Chemical Symbols, Atoms and Molecules, Ionization, Liquid Mixtures, Diffusion and Osmosis, Nerve Cells, The Covalent Bond, Polar and Nonpolar Covalent Bonds, Functional Groups in Organic Compounds, Hydrogen Bonds, Isomers, Carbohydrates, Lipids, Proteins, Nucleotides, Enzymes, Biologic Oxidation, Photosynthesis, Oxygen-Carbon Dioxide Transport in the Blood.For college instructors and students, or anyone interested in issues relating to chemistry. ... Read more

Reviews (3)

This book saved my life!
My biology professor recommended this book to help us refresh ourknowledge of the chemistry needed throughout the course.It is wellwritten and covers all necessary information.It has a student friendlyformat which helps you retain the information as you work your way throughthe book.If I hadn't had this book, I would have been more than a littleconfused.Happy reading!

excellent introduction to basic chemistry
This book saved me in my college-level intro bio class.I hadn't had chemistry, but decided to take the class anyway.This gave me the basics that I needed to support what I learned in my text and class, and itprovided excellent review material at the end of the semester.I foundthat the systematic approach to building concepts very easy to understand,and the question/answer format made the material easy to remember.I wouldrecommend this book to any student who is taking a biology class that isheavily rooted in bio-chem who does not have a strong chemistry background.

Good study guide for basic chemistry concepts
This book of 207 pages is compact and well organized. It provides a very basic overview of chemistry concepts.It covers general concepts of Inorganic, Organic, and Biochemistry.Basically this book is set up like a work book that the student goes through. Answers are given right by the questions so there is no flipping back and forth.It does a fairly good job of also incorporating general biology concepts. It contains reference illustrations such as the periodic table and the electron transport chain plus numerous others.I would reccomend this book to biology teachers at the high school level who desire to teach more chemistry in biology or who are teaching a combinded chem/bio class ... Read more

Book Description

This third edition of the classic "how-to" guide incorporates recent changes in policies and procedures of the NIH, with particular emphasis on the role of the Internet in the research proposal process. Completely revised and updated, it reveals the secrets of success used by seasoned investigators, and directs the reader through the maze of NIH bureaucracies. In addition to providing a detailed overview of the entire review process, the book also includes hundreds of tips on how to enhance proposals, excerpts from real proposals, and extensive Internet references. This book is essential to all scientists involved in the grant writing process.

Key Features:
* Considers the reviewer's perspective
* Detailed presentation of the review process
* All sections of the R01 proposal are reviewed
* Hundreds of tips to enhance proposals
* Includes the many recent changes in NIH policies
* Includes many excerpts from real proposals
* Provides extensive Internet references

Benefits:
* Increased competitiveness
* Better priority scores
* Less chance of triage
* Increased award rates
* Uses the system to advantage
* Reveals strategies used by the "old pros" ... Read more

Reviews (2)

Beware the description of this book
This is a supplement to my earlier review. Note that the description of American Insects, by Arnett,... is based on the first edition, in which "Every order, family, and genus is conveniently numbered and indexed" and you could "quickly determine the taxonomic position of any species, genus, or higher taxon of insect known to occur in America and Canada." This is not the case in the second edition. You can look up major genera only.

Subfamilies are listed under an entry for the family, not under the subfamily name, which means you _can't_ quickly determine their taxonomic positions. You have to know the taxonomic position in order to look up the subfamilies. This defeats one major purpose of the book, and renders it not very usable.

Whoever provided the text for the book description apparently just carried it over from the previous edition, without taking into account the changes in the new edition. This isn't by a long stretch the same book.

Once excellent book devalued
As a naturalist and amateur entomologist, I found the first edition of this book especially useful for looking up unfamiliar genera and species of insects, to find out where they fit in the scheme of insect taxonomy.

Unfortunately, CRC Press, the publisher of the second edition, has cut corners by reducing the size of the index from 128 pages for 714 pages of text in the first edition to 57 pages for 931 pages of text in the second edition. This was accomplished by eliminating all but the major genera from the index. In my opinion, this seriously diminishes the value of the book. The best information in the world is useless if you can't access it efficiently. A book like this lives or dies by the quality of its index.

After purchasing the book in early January, 2001 and quickly discovering the problem, I wrote to the publisher to complain and to ask that they make available a complete index as a supplement. I have yet to receive a response from them. The book's author, Ross Arnett, was upset when the publisher of the first edition inadvertently left out the photo captions in proof and wouldn't restore them. I have to think he is spinning in his grave over the gutting of the index in the second edition, a much more serious affair.

I'd love to be able to recommend the second edition of this book. However, unless the publisher remedies the index problem, I can't. Unless you want it primarily for the keys, I suggest looking for a used copy of the first edition. ... Read more

Book Description

The survival of the Earth's biological resources is under threat from rapidly expanding human populations that are degrading the environment at an accelerating rate. Despite the increased awareness of the importance of biological diversity, the scientific foundations on which to plan conservation and development policies are still being developed. The Global Biodiversity Assessment represents an unparalleled attempt to provide an independent scientific analysis of the current issues. It assesses the present state of knowledge, identifies gaps in understanding and draws attention to those issues where scientists have reached a consensus as well as those where uncertainty has led to conflicting viewpoints and a need for further research. The Assessment provides an unprecedented source of information for decision-makers, officials, scientists and others interested in the future of the planet. ... Read more

Reviews (1)

Global Biodiversity Assessment
A useful textbook for students, scientists and policy makers. The information is extensive and detailed in a logical fashion, taking the reader from the basics of biodiversity through to human influences, economic values and conservation. ... Read more

Book Description

In this landmark book, Robert O. Becker, M.D., a pioneer in the field of bioelectric science, presents a fascinating look at the role electricity plays in healing, challenging the traditional mechanistic model of the body. Colorful and controversial, this is a tale of engrossing research, scientific and medical politics, and breakthrough discoveries that offer new possibilities for fighting disease and harnessing the body's healing powers. ... Read more

Reviews (14)

Excellent start of the field...
This book finally leads medicine (and biology) from the early 1800's into the 21st century. That is, these areas have been stuck in a mechanistic, chemical-based view of how the body works since they elected to ignore Maxwell's work - work that has lead to all of the electrical gadgets and technology we all love so dearly.

For some reason those in who study life have elected to ignore Maxwell's work and concentrate on chemical reactions. As was pointed out back in the 1920's (and earlier even) this approach precludes life so it is no wonder that medicine has not advanced very far.

Becker lays the groundwork for understanding ancient traditions such as Qigong (the Taoists certainly understood the concept of the energetic body) in addition to exposing the widespread pollution we are now exposed to. One wonders when people will wake up and realize that the electromagnetic pollution is no doubt doing at least as much as the chemical pollution in causing changes to the planet's biosphere.

Excellent book in addition to the newer "Cross Currents".

A Basic in The Field
This book, which I found as the only one which met my criteria in a library search, had a profound affect on my life. I am not a scientist, and was somewhat put off by the long list of tortured & murdered animals which are central to the body of the work. I finished the book easily, though, and the information was instrumental in creating my own work. I came at this from an Eastern point of view and found the basic science very useful. I work now mainly with neurological difficulties, and am grateful to Dr. Becker every day. I downgraded it one star (actually 1/2 star) because he tries to incorporate fields with which he has no familiarity in order to make his work comprehensive. For instance, he suggest that because he could find electrical conduction at only half the points used in acupuncture, he suggests that possibly the other half are spurious. In his own field, however, his research is outstanding.

The rebirth of electrobiology
This is not an extremely technical book. You would have some trouble trying to reproduce the good doctor's experiments with nothing but this. But it is very influential, and very interesting. A collection of the Biological works of Robert Becker would not only get 5 stars from me, but would be the greatest scientific work of the 20th century, with the POSSIBLE exception of Einstein's "Collected Works on Relativity". Yes, Becker is that good.

My first exposure to Becker was a relatively unimpressive interview on 60 minutes when I was a boy. In college I watched this man's work almost singlehandedly bring back electrobiology, which (so said the books printed in the 80's) was dead. There is still much to do in this field. It's rare for an MD (no, he is not a PhD) to be able to figure these things out without having someone else tell it to him. That's a compliment, by the way. Hell, MD's keep saying the Atkins diet won't work, when bodybuilders and wrestlers have been using the same principles very successfully for decades. They just aren't progressive thinkers for the most part, but this guy has more to say (that you need to hear) than any PhD around today.

His early article in the Journal of Bone and Joint Surgery(an early inspiration for my thesis) is cited here, as are several of his later articles, so it gives you leads to follow. If you are a scientist or are studying to be one, I recomend this as something very important to read between semesters. If you are a laymen that is either interested in science or just worried about the potential hazards of electromagnetic pollution, I recomend it as a starting point.

Must Read For Any MD/Researcher/Engineer Worth Their Salt
"The Body Electric" (1) and "Cross Currents" (2)These books are the basis for electro-medicine good/harmful effects. They (the first one especially) provide cogent explanations on the cancer
mechanisms; bone/tissue/organ regeneration and electromagnetic effects. One can deduce how wrong and primitive mainstream thinking is in these matters.

I think these books should be required reading by any MD/researcher/engineer worth her/his salt.

Incidentally Dr. Becker, far ahead of his time, is the king of stem cell research, however, he was hounded by the mainstream as his research would have put much of the wrong headed & self serving research funding in jeopardy and he hardly ever gets credit for his ground breaking work.

A Killer Cronology of Medicine, Healing and Regeneration
If you have not read Robert O. Becker yet you must, if you have any interest in health processes or the healing process. He was a very thorough medical researcher with a keen interest in regeneration and lays the basis of his work on a rich history of medical evolution from 2,000 BC forward. While he touches only lightly on silver, he was the first to certify that electro generated silver ions not only kill most pathogens but are also the only metallic ions to cause dedifferentiation of cells and thus rapid local regeneration. His primary application was as bimetallic (battery) implants to speed bone and other tissue healing but he opened the world to the electrical nature of cellular life processes.

Another interest I have always had was TENS or zapper units but after reading his works find 99% of applications are very risky due to mans constant desire to "make it stronger" - he found as little as a few billionths of an ampere and less then 1 volt triggered healing or regeneration and more was not only counterproductive but usually dangerous.

He gets bitter in the end, having been forced to close his lab, essentially banned from research by his peers because he moved forward too far too fast plus eventually got involved in attacking the electropollution man has introduced into our environment in the last 60 years. Our universe and thus evolutionary development are based on a low level electromagnetic environment with the dominant 10 hertz frequency of both our brains and gravity waves but man has increased the electropollution by 1,000 times,with the advent of 50/60 Hz electric lines blanketing the earth and pervase pulsed microwaves to the point we are effecting the Van Allen belt and thus weather, if not the general decline of many of mans bio-functions!

His followup book Cross Currents is slightly repetative but adds a great deal more, especially to his electropollution comcerns. ... Read more

Reviews (2)

Best Medical Micro Text Ever-Reads Like a Good Novel!
I teach microbiology to nursing students, so I only use this book as a reference. It's a wonderful book; I take it to bed with me and don't fall asleep (really). The information is comprehensive without being unnecesarily difficult, and the organization and presentation are so intuitive, it seems to answer your next question before you even formulate it. My only gripe is WHERE IS THE NEW EDITION??? Even though this book is old, 1998, it's still worth the money, but it doesn't have the new emergent diseases like TSE and SARS.

Indispensable guide to microbiology
Excellent presentation of material relevant to all aspects of microbiology mechanisms within the medical industry. Core book! A must have! ... Read more

Book Description

Measuring Behaviour is a guide to the principles and methods of quantitative studies of behavior, with an emphasis on techniques of direct observation, recording, and analysis. In the new edition, all sections have been updated and revised, particularly those dealing with the technology of recording behavior, and there are new sections on regression and multivariate statistics.As with the first edition, the authors strive for brevity and clarity of presentation. ... Read more

Reviews (2)

Concise, clear reference
This is a fantastic book for anyone interested in the study of human or non-human behavior in lab or field settings. The authors pack nothing but the vital basics in this guide. They cover topics such as research design (sample sizes) and data analysis (parametric vs. nonparametric stats). Reading this book is a great use of your time if you're considering research on animal behavior.

A perfect introduction
This book is a perfect introduction to the field of behavioral data collection. I purchased this book for my first behavioral study of captive primates and it was extremely helpful. If you have never conducted research in this area, this book is a must have. ... Read more

Book Description

Making the theory of population genetics relevant to readers, this book explains the related mathematics with a logical organization.It presents the quantitative aspects of population genetics, and employs examples of human genetics, medical evolution, human evolution, and endangered species.For an introduction to, and understanding of, population genetics. ... Read more

Book Description

This lab guide gets readers up and running quickly with exercises that help them get the most out of the more than 20,000 images in A.D.A.M.(r) Interactive Anatomy (AIA) software. Authors Lafferty and Panella are active AIA users who know what readers need to bridge the gap between systems-based anatomy books and the extensive illustration program in AIA.For college instructors and students. ... Read more

Reviews (1)

Great reference for my gross anatomy class
I liked this book because it make anatomy much easier to retain because of the detailed pictures showing the structures of the body. I'm a visual learner and found this book to be very good in showing me the difference in location between various ligaments and bones etc. I also used the following which is also available on amazon:
Spinal Anatomy Study Guide: Key Review Questions and Answers
isbn: 0971999600
This study guide helped me with the type of questions encountered in on my medical gross anatomy tests in med school. I highly recommend both books ... Read more

Book Description

The first book to provide a scientific explanation of the mysterious, infuriating, and downright weird behavior of teenagers.

A mother paces the living room waiting for her sixteen-year-old son to come home hours past his curfew. When he finally saunters in, he answers every question with a blank stare, dashes to his room, and slams the door. The mother, stunned and angry, thinks “It’s just hormones, right?”

Wrong. While raging hormones and an inclination toward rebellion are major players in the teenage drama, an area north of the gonads is directing the show: the brain. In The Primal Teen, Barbara Strauch examines the cutting-edge scientific discoveries that are providing vital new information about what makes teens tick.

Until recently, scientists believed the brain had largely finished its development by the teenage years. But breakthrough research by leading neuroscientists now shows that the adolescent brain is an intensely busy work-in-progress, transforming some sections, radically pruning the synaptic connections, while strengthening those connections that remain. This immense “rewiring” project provides new clues to explain the swift mood changes, out-of-character responses and reactions, and even the acts of sheer stupidity that have puzzled parents throughout history. Strauch not only sheds new light on these breakthrough findings, she shows how understanding the basis of teenage behavior can lead the way to a saner and smoother relationship between parents and their kids. Through interviews with scientists, teenagers, parents, and teachers, she explores common challenges — why teens can be so articulate and mature one day and so morose the next, why they engage in risky behavior, and why some kids struggle while others bloom — and offers practical strategies to help parents and kids manage these often difficult years.

The Primal Teen is a major step forward in deciphering and responding to the moody metamorphosis all teenagers go through. ... Read more

Reviews (14)

The Primal Teen
This is a must read book for all parents! Author Barbara Strauch presents the latest scientific findings regarding the teenage brain in a highly readable, even enjoyable layperson's format. This book gives incredible insight into why our teenagers act and think the way they do. It also allows us a view into the latest medicial thinking--including the vast amounts learned only recently and how much is still to be discovered. I think parents will find this book enormously useful, as well as comforting, in their everyday interactions with their kids. Kudos to author Strauch for bringing us new insights and for dispelling some long held myths.

A wonderful whirlrwind tour into the teenager's brain & mind
Barbara Strauch has offered us a beautifully written account of her journey to understand the cutting edge of knowledge and modern scientific exploration of the adolescent brain. Through her clear and accessible writing, we are given the chance to hear the voices of scientists focusing their current work on imaging the changes in the teen's brain: insights into changes that help us (as parents, as professionals, as former teens ourselves) to understand the wild and confusing time of adolescent turmoil and transformation. As a parent, I found the book extremely entertaining, illuminating, and reassuring. As a child and adolescent psychiatrist who writes about the brain, the mind, and human relationships, I found the book to be an extremely useful resource for the teens and parents in my practice and seminars. Barbara Strauch has succeeded in helping us to understand our teenagers in a more compassionate light, opening the door to possibilities for improved relationships, and even a deeper understanding of ourselves. A wonderful treat for anyone interested in knowing more about how we transition from childhood to adulthood.

Any Parent's "Must" Read
Fascinating, informative and helpful to any parent who has raised, is raising, or will be raising a teenager. A definite "required reading" for anyone involved with teens, be it parent, teacher, judiciary, law enforcement, etc. Highly recommended. It certainly makes sense of this senseless creature!

Interesting and reassuring book.
I don't have children, but I do have an interest in mind and the brain, so when an on-line friend, Steven Haines, recommended it I decided to read The Primal Teen. As catchy as the title may sound, the book is actually quite serious about the subject of the developing teenage brain. Although the author is not herself a neurologist or neuroscientist, she is a skillful journalist (New York Times and Newsday). The topic is well researched with primary sources taken from prestigious professional journals like Nature Neuroscience, Brain Research, Journal of Comparative Neurology, Cerebral Cortex, Annals of Neurology, etc. While some of those articles cited are late 1980s, most are 1997 to 2002 (the book was published in 2003). Ms Strauch also interviewed some of the researchers personally for their input on what the scientific data are likely to mean and how it impacts teens and their families. Topics covered are: where the new data are coming from; teens and impulsive behavior; the whens, wheres, and whys of changes in the structure of the brain; what animal studies have to say about development of the brain in adolescents; why teens take risks; why teens seem to keep late hours and sleep late in the day; the chemistry of the brain and puberty; and the effects of drugs, tobacco and alcohol on growing brains.

I was a little frustrated with the lack of actual suggestions for parents on how to cope with their changing teen. To some extent the anecdotal stories of some of the researchers who had teenaged children and those from the author herself provided insight into possible approaches, but on the whole very little by the way of helpful problem solving was offered. This may well be because too little has yet been done to make definite statements. The book at least helps a parent understand that their teenagers are "normal" despite the apparent erratic behavior they exhibit, that patience is the most likely route to a successful rite of passage, and most importantly that "this too will pass."

An interesting and reassuring book.

What's Wrong with Adult Brains?
I worked with children and teens in their families for 15 years, and what I saw is
reflected in cold statistics--American adults don’t need flattering reassurances that we’re
okay, we need a hard slap of reality. Sixty percent of American parents’ marriages end in
divorce today, subjecting kids to unbelievable conflicts. American adults and parents are,
by far, the most violent, drug-abusing, criminally arrested, imprisoned, obese, and
unstable of any Western nation, and all of these adult crises have skyrocketed in the last
four decades.
Today, 20 million teens have been subjected to their parents’ family breakup, 10
million young people grow up with parents who are heavy drinkers or dug addicts, more
than 1 million youths suffer parents arrested for felonies every year (several hundred
thousand of whose parents are imprisoned), and hundreds of thousands of youths are
confirmed victims of violent and sexual abuses in their homes every year. Compared to
parents in other Western countries. Americans are far more likely to use psychiatrists,
Ritalin, forced institutionalization, police interventions, harsh restrictions such as curfews
and drug tests, violent punishments, and lengthy imprisonments on children and
teens--and we complain we STILL can't control our kids!
Strauch’s book, of course, sticks safely to abstract theories and pleasing anecdotes
and touches on none of these disturbing realities. She gushes over pompous claims by a
few self-praising bio-researchers that their overblown, post-1996 notions invalidate all
the thousands of practical research studies on adolescents and adults that came before.
Unfortunately, neurobiological research is notoriously inconclusive--conscientious
experts (not numbered among the ones Strauch interviews) readily admit that our
knowledge of how brain organization processes affect real-world behavior is woefully
primitive.
What counts is that decades of practical research tests involving real-life decision
making have shown that teenagers and adults think very much alike. In fact, teenage rates
of violent crime, homicide, suicide, unplanned pregnancy, HIV infection, heavy drinking,
drunken driving accidents, smoking, obesity, and so forth, closely follow the
corresponding rates among adults of their families and communities--a fact that is
impossible to explain if teenage and adult brains are fundamentally different.
The reason Strauch’s book has no “practical advice” for parents is because this
book has no relevance to practical, real-life situations beyond the self-serving anecdotes
she chooses. No wonder Americans praise and make best-sellers out of books that skip
over how alarmingly American middle-aged behavior has deteriorated and flatter us that
the whole problem is that teenagers can’t think straight.
Mike Males, Santa Cruz ... Read more

Book Description

The classic resource for undergraduate microbiology laboratory courses just keeps getting better. The self-contained, clearly illustrated exercises and four-color format make Microbiological Applications: A Laboratory Manual in General Microbiology the ideal lab manual. Appropriate for either a majors or non-majors lab course, this lab manual assumes no prior organic chemistry course has been taken. ... Read more

Book Description

The classic text known as the 'gold standard' in microbiology is now revised, reorganized, and up-to-date. Always comprehensive and current, this edition features even more new information on hot topics such as identification systems, quality control organisms, antiparasitic agents, HIV viral load testing, HIV genotyping, Hepatitis C virus, antivirals, and a new procedure for the motility test. In addition, thoroughly revised material reflects the latest advances and developments. New clinical case studies challenge students to think critically and apply what they've learned in realistic situations, and a compartmentalized organization keeps related topics together so information is easy to find. ... Read more

Reviews (3)

A Good Starting Point In Clinical Microbiology
I own this book plus buying a copy for the lab, the book is not as thorough as the manual of clinincal microbiology by the ASM and edited by Murray. But is thorough enough for most routine bench work and is not as bulky as Murray. Murray and or Bergeys would be required for the more difficult organisms, but for everything else, or the student studying diagnostic Clinical microbiology I would rate this book highly.

THIS IS THE BEST MICROBIOLOGY TEXTBOOK I'VE EVER READ.
OVERALL, THIS BOOK IS THE BEST. I WOULD DEFINITELY RECOMMENDTHIS BOOK TO MY FRIENDS. IT HAS A GREAT SECTION ON PARASITOLOGY ANDGREAT COLOR PAGES.

An excellent reference book
This edition of Bailey & Scott is the best so far. The tables included in each chapter are well organized. They present the data in an easy to look up manner. Information on individual organisms is better organized in contrast to earlier editions. One complaint is that older names and test procedures are not included. I suppose the authors wish to present the most current information but it would be nice to have a reference to an older name or test when a physician inquires. ... Read more

Book Description

This book focuses readers on the function of plants and the role they play in our world. The authors emphasize the scientific method to help readers develop the critical thinking skills they need to make sound decisions throughout life. This focus on how plants work and the development of critical thinking skills together support the ultimate goal of developing scientific literacy.This book is organized around the themes of DNA science, global ecology, and evolution.The key concepts discussed in the book are molecules, cells and microbes; plant structure and reproduction; and, plant diversity and the environment.For anyone interested in botany (plant biology). ... Read more

Reviews (1)

Great reference book with lots of nice photos
I've known many biology textbooks, but this has the nicest and best photos you could ever find. Though this book mainly aims for non-majors, I, a botany graduate student, still find it very useful and informative. Highly recommend this for people who want to know about general plant biology, but have been intimidated by heavy, thick textbooks. ... Read more

Book Description

This fully customizable, four-color lab manual contains 46 lab exercises with more than 600 labeled color photographs and diagrams. The fexible organization of the presentation of the material allows instructors to vary the length of most exercises. ... Read more

Reviews (1)

Excellent Job!!!!
Thanks for all your help. Fast Shipping. The book was exactly how it was described. Thank You. ... Read more

Reviews (1)

short and to the point!
This is a great textbook for developmental biology students, or for people looking for general information on the subject! The text contains background "boxes" with information on genetics and biochemistry so you dont really need background knowledge in those subjects to understand the content of the book. It is short, so it doesn't go into too much detail but there's enough information to understand the concepts! This text is not like most texts where they are so boring and hard to read that you just give up. It's fairly easy reading and keeps things interesting enough to read the assigned pages. ... Read more

Book Description

Reviews of the Second Edition

"In this book, Andy Baxevanis and Francis Ouellette . . . have undertaken the difficult task of organizing the knowledge in this field in a logical progression and presenting it in a digestible form. And they have done an excellent job. This fine text will make a major impact on biological research and, in turn, on progress in biomedicine. We are all in their debt."
--Eric Lander, from the Foreword to the Second Edition

"The editors and the chapter authors of this book are to be applauded for providing biologists with lucid and comprehensive descriptions of essential topics in bioinformatics. This book is easy to read, highly informative, and certainly timely. It is most highly recommended for students and for established investigators alike, for anyone who needs to know how to access and use the information derived in and from genomic sequencing projects."
--Trends in Genetics

"It is an excellent general bioinformatics text and reference, perhaps even the best currently available . . . Congratulations to the authors, editors, and publisher for producing a weighty, authoritative, readable, and attractive book."
--Briefings in Bioinformatics

"This book, written by the top scientists in the field of bioinformatics, is the perfect choice for every molecular biology laboratory."
--The Quarterly Review of Biology

This fully revised version of a world-renowned bestseller provides readers with a practical guide covering the full scope of key concepts in bioinformatics, from databases to predictive and comparative algorithms. Using relevant biological examples, the book provides background on and strategies for using many of the most powerful and commonly used computational approaches for biological discovery. This Third Edition reinforces key concepts that have stood the test of time while making the reader aware of new and important developments in this fast-moving field. With a new full-color and enlarged page design, Bioinformatics, Third Edition offers the most readable, up-to-date, and thorough introduction to the field for biologists.

This new edition features:

• New chapters on genomic databases, predictive methods using RNA sequences, sequence polymorphisms, protein structure prediction, intermolecular interactions, and proteomic approaches for protein identification
• Detailed worked examples illustrating the strategic use of the concepts presented in each chapter, along with a collection of expanded,more rigorous problem sets suitable for classroom use
• Special topic boxes and appendices highlighting experimental strategies and advanced concepts
• Annotated reference lists, comprehensive lists of relevant Web resources, and an extensive glossary of commonly used terms in bioinformatics, genomics, and proteomics

Reviews (13)

Great book, easy to follow, expert authors
Five stars, a great place for people like me (trained as a biochemist) to start in a field that I know is going to be more and more important as to how I do my work in the future. I've been able to use basic things like BLAST more effectively, and finally understand that there are other ways to look at sequence besides BLAST and how to apply those tools to my own sequences. I really like the Entrez chapter, since Entrez does so much more than I ever realized it could do! I haven't ventured into the advanced territory yet (like microarrays), but at least I understand what I'm hearing in seminars now and what all those red and green spots actually represent.

I read the review by "a reader in Cambridge, MA", and don't understand what their beef is with this title. The authors have tried (and have succeeded) in pointing the readers to the best PUBLIC DOMAIN software out there, augmenting documentation that's generally lacking. Have you ever tried finding good docs on the NCBI Web site? Well, these two editors got them for you. UNIX-centric? I can't speak for the first edition, but check out the second edition and see that there's tons of Netscape screen dumps demonstrating the tools and making things as easy as possible for the reader. I originally bought this because of the reviews published in Science and Cell and a slew of other journals, all favorable, so the "reader in Cambridge" seems out of step with all of the published journal reviews of the book. Everyone's entitled to their opinion, but I just wanted to point this out for a sense of balance here, especially since my own experience was so different.

Somewhat more than an out-of-date catalog of tools
The book is a collection of chapters by different authors addressing software tools for various problems: database search, multiple sequence alignment, gene prediction, protein structure prediction, etc. A big flaw is that all of the authors assume a different level of prior background and have rather different emphases.

I'd have to agree with the other reviewer that Chapters 1 & 17, which constitute 10% of the book, are wasted paper. No one in 2001 (when the book was published), let alone 2004, needs Chapter 1's lengthy explanation of what e-mail and web browsers are. And the perl program at the anticlimax of Chapter 17 was ... anticlimactic.

The book is to a great extent a catalog of available software tools. With the exception of the chapters on multiple alignment and phylogeny, the emphasis is on not on how the tools work but how to operate them -- to the of saying "at this URL there is a web page where you can either paste in your sequence or upload a file". The idea of invoking a program through a Unix command line is more than once presented as a truly daunting prospect. The authors generally do a good job of emphasizing that the programs are the beginning of analysis and not the end; the results must always be viewed somewhat skeptically with an expert eye.

If you're coming at the book as a biologist, you will probably find it to be a useful catalog of software, though undoubtedly dated by now. If you're coming at it from the informatics side, you're going to need some background... a book like Dwyer's, Setubal and Meidanis's, or Mount's will get you up to speed on the algorithm aspects of the field with simplified versions of many of the big problems. Then you can look at this book to find good pointers to the ways the real-world versions have been addressed.

The book was published three years ago and, being to a large extent an index of the work of others, is necessarily no longer up to date in a fast-moving field. It needs a revision and, in the meantime, it would make more sense to snag a used copy than to pay full price for a new book.

A survey tor tool users
Like any survey, it seems to touch the major features only. And, as others have pointed out, the tools change but the book doesn't.

I think this is a good, brief introduction to the wide variety of bioinformatic tools and databases on the internet. It describes the major features of each, and the kinds of results that each tool is good for. After that, the serious user will go to the sources of each tool or database, to learn more about the specifics as of the moment. No book can hope to keep up with the weekly enhancements at the major repositories.

I emphasize that this is for tools users, not tool makers. It addresses the working scientists who already know their subjects and their needs. This skips over the algorithms in favor of higher level descriptions, and skips over many of the biological reasons for the tools described. Better-informed tool users get better answers from the tools, true. At some point, though, the biologists want to skip the theory, skip the introduction to subjects in which they're experts, and get on with their science. I don't think this book was ever meant for people - and I'm one - who want full details of the algorithms.

I agree, the book treats its many subjects in a shallow way. I think that is by intent, since the book's real goal is breadth and its target is a reader who knows the basic science. It's a bit off the center of my interests, but I've found it helpful.

Bioinformatic for the beginner...
I guess that everybody interrested by this kind of book knows already a little about bioinformatic and wants to improve his bioinformatician skill. So forget about this book:
This is really a well-documented introduction to all the methods currently used by every biologist or biology student, such as Blast, Clustal, multiple alignement or use of web-interface for submiting sequence.
So get it if you need a clear introduction to the field, but if you already know a little bit about bioinfo, immediately choose a more detailed book.

Poorly organized overpriced book
Although the book is presented as an introduction to the topic, its organization assumes that the reader has already been working in the area. Two of the chapters (1 and 17) are a waste of space. The first chapter presents a (useless) introduction to internet, while chapter 17 attempts (and fails to do so) to explain Perl in the context of bioinformatics. For the same money you can find far better books in the market. The good thing is that I only borrowed the book :) ... Read more

Book Description

This best-selling volume presents the principles and applications of physical chemistry as they are used to solve problems in biology and medicine.The First Law; the Second Law; free energy and chemical equilibria; free energy and physical Equilibria; molecular motion and transport properties; kinetics: rates of chemical reactions; enzyme kinetics; the theory and spectroscopy of molecular structures and interactions: molecular distributions and statistical thermodynamics; and macromolecular structure and X-ray diffraction.For anyone interested in physical chemistry as it relates to problems in biology and medicine. ... Read more

Reviews (9)

Dry and confusing:Hardcover 3rd Edition
For a very difficult subject this book is without any color or interesting text.The derivations of the already complicated equations jump steps so you have to redo them all yourself to see how they got to the end. I got through to nearly the end of the first chapeter but then gave up for now as I was falling asleep too often.I get the impression that the authors were approached by the publisher to write this textbook and that it was not written with any passion to show the excitement of scientific discovery.There is no background or history mentioned which would have made the whole thing more human.

not so bad
Tinoco, Sauer, Wang, and now Puglisi, have written a fine text on both the foundations of thermodyanmics and physical chemistry, and the applications of these fields to biological phenomena (both natural and experimental.)

The 3rd edition of the book, in this reviewer's memory, was remarkable only in its staggering lack of focus and explanatory power. This 4th edition vastly improves on that effort.

It has to be said that thermodynamics without statistical mechanics is probably always going to be obscured by the fog of axioms, unless the reader exhibits some remarkable intuitiveness about entropy and partial derivatives. The first few chapters of the book focus on thermodynamics from this axiomatic approach, and may be the reason why so many undergraduate students find the whole thing so distasteful. But it has to be said that the authors spared some effort in trying to ameliorate the abstractness of thermo, by interjecting molecular interpretations of thermo phenomena every now and then.

Once the reader has sped past the thermodynamics, and free energy equilibria chapters, he can be expected to come upon a series of well-written chapters on kinetics. The chapters are generously illustrated with informative diagrams, and most modern and relevant topics are discussed, such as transition state theories, enzyme kinetics, allostery (although the section on allostery was slightly underwhelming. I recommend that the authors develop this section more carefully by considering the various regimes of allostery.)

A valiant attempt is made for discussing quantum mechanics and applications to physical chemistry problems. However, it would seem that quantum mechanics just can't be taught in one chapter, although it's essential in proper understanding of spectroscopy, which forms the basis for the subsequent 'applications' chapter.

The book ends with a discussion of statistical thermodynamics. If the reader begins here and reads it carefully, it is likely that he can surmount the comprehension problems in the initial thermodynamics chapters. This is only the opinion of this reviewer though.

In summary, this is a good book with a comprehensive collection of topics relevant to the modern biology researcher (be you biochemist, biophysicist, chemical biologist, or plain vanilla biologist). The undergraduate student may be bewildered by the variety of topics presented in such a succint manner. The book has easy to read type, sometimes crammed with too much text. There is an absolutely excellent selection of problems, with an accompanying solutions manual that bears only a few errors. Let it be said that there are many many worse physical chemistry books out there, and giving this book anything less than 3 stars would corrupt the usefulness of the ... ratings system.

Good reference
As a graduate student in biochemistry, who has never taken a physical chemistry class, but who has a good background in physics and calculus, I really like this book as a reference. Standard physical chemistry textbooks I looked at, such as Atkins, did not cover the biologically relevant topics I was interetsed in.

This book contains just the right depth for a reference in biophysical chemistry. The concepts are always presented with biological applications in mind. The topics covered, from thermodynamics to kinetcs, quantum chemisty and the physics behind the main biophysical techniques, are exactly what I was looking for.

I was originally intending to buy the 3 volume Cantor and Schimmel series, but I have found that this book gives me everything I need for a much lower price.

This book is HORRIBLE!
This is the WORST book I've ever seen. The authors assume that calculus and differential equations are the second nature to the readers and use complicated mathmatical derivations without any explanation. Furthermore, the topics covered in this book are just too broad and disorganized. After reading a chapter, I wonder, "what is this chapter about?"
Don't buy this book--the only reason that I bought this book is because we use this text book in our class. And only after one term, I am thinking about buying another text. This book is an absolute waste of money.

A really confusing text
This book is not intended for first time learner or a person who wants to study in depth about P-Chem or Bio-P-Chem.
If it were not due to uc berkeley's requirement, I would NEVER buy this.
The text is lacking of derivations. Easy problems are made to be too complicated. I had to refer to my physics book in order to do the problems.
I would not recommend anyone to buy this. ... Read more

Book Description

The Phylogenetic Handbook is a broad introduction to the theory and practice of nucleotide and amino acid phylogenetic analysis. As an unique feature of this book, each chapter contains an extensive practical section, in which step-by-step exercises on real data sets introduce the most widely used phylogeny software including CLUSTAL, PHYLIP, PAUP*, DAMBE, TREE-PUZZLE, TREECON, SplitsTree, TreeView, SimPlot, MEGA2, PAML and BOOTSCANNING. The book provides a strong background in basic topics: the use of sequence databases, alignment algorithms, tree-building methods, estimation of genetic distances, and testing models of evolution. ... Read more

Book Description

Biochemistry: The Chemical Reactions of Living Cells is a well-integrated, up-to-date reference for basic biochemistry, associated chemistry, and underlying biological phenomena. Biochemistry is a comprehensive account of the chemical basis of life, describing the amazingly complex structures of the compounds that make up cells, the forces that hold them together, and the chemical reactions that allow for recognition, signaling, and movement. This book contains information on the human body, its genome, and the action of muscles, eyes, and the brain.

*Thousands of literature references provide introduction to current research as well as historical background
*Contains twice the number of chapters of the first edition
*Each chapter contains boxes of information on topics of general interest ... Read more