Book Description

"Although most people are aware that bacteria are all around us, few would guess that they produce such distinctive and accessible signs. Whether you’re walking on the beach, visiting a zoo or aquarium, buying groceries, looking for fossils, drinking beer, traipsing through a swamp, or cleaning scum from beneath a dripping outdoor faucet, you’re surrounded by bacterial field marks. You don’t need a laboratory or fancy equipment to find out what kind of bacteria are there—this guide will tell you how."—from the Introduction

Bacteria are an integral aspect of every habitat in which they occur and affect the lives of humans, other animals, and plants in many ways. Too often, we equate "bacterium" with "pathogen" and think of bacteria as things to avoid. In a fascinating guide perfect for naturalists, students, teachers, and tourists alike, Betsey Dexter Dyer lets the reader know that it is possible to observe bacteria with all the senses. Many groups of bacteria can be easily identified in the field (or in the refrigerator) without a microscope.

Written for curious souls of all ages, A Field Guide to Bacteria opens our eyes—and noses and ears—to this hidden (or neglected) world around us. Useful illustrations, including 120 color photographs, accompany Dyer’s lively text throughout. ... Read more

Reviews (3)

At Last: A Guide to Charismatic Microflora!
Betsey Dexter Dyer has written a book in "A Field Guide to Bacteria" that, once it is opened, you wonder why no one has written before. The premise is so obvious that it seems to have been totally overlooked! Location, visual appearance, activity, smell and other characteristics that do not always require a high-powered microscope can be used to identify bacterial colonies! Fortunately the "wait" for such a book (which, until now, we probably did not even know we needed) has been worth it because Dyer has done an excellent job of writing it! In this book she introduces the reader to the teaming microflora of bacteria of earth in a way that cannot help but increase the number of people who appreciate these invisible true owners of the planet.

The huge bacterial flora is well covered and the author's grasp of the multitudinous habitats where bacteria live and thrive, sometimes under the most extreme conditions, is impressive. Everything from sulfur bacteria, halophytes and causes of desert varnish to internal symbionts and more are covered in fascinating detail. Dyer has opened up a whole new way of looking at the world that give us a more accurate view of the pervasiveness of the tiny. Not all bacteria are out to get us by any means and this book provides a much needed balance to the "killer bacteria" usually featured in popular literature.

A necessary book for amateur and even professional microbiologists, it will also, I think, provide a good read for anyone interested in the natural world as it really is.

Excellent even for professional microbiologists
While this book is intended for the general public, and is certainly accessible to those without microbiological training, don't pass it up even if you have microbiological training -- in many ways it is a condensed version of Balows' _The Prokaryotes_, and likewise quite useful for reminding oneself what obscure groups of bacteria do "for a living".

Of course, Dyer's book is a lighter, more amusing read than Balows', and chock full of the sort of anecdote that is fun to slip into a lecture -- such as the explanation of Charles Dickens' cryptic reference to a "bad lobster in a dark cellar" in _The Christmas Carol_, and the fact that the oddly named cyanobacterium _Nostoc_ was named by the alchemist Paracelsus!

In addition, I was pleasantly surprised that despite identifying herself on the very first page as a former student of Lynn Margulis, Dyer doesn't try to defend her mentor's continued rejection of the discoveries of molecular phylogeny, but even goes so far as to praise Woese and Sogin by name! It is refreshing to finally see a work of popular science that acknowledges how the pioneers of molecular phylogeny have changed microbiology over the last couple decades.

Brilliant concept, great execution, fun book
This fun and informative book starts with the brilliant idea of identifying bacteria by their MACROscopic field marks (colors, smells, effects) rather than by microscope. You would never believe how many bacteria one can identify by "field marks" alone, and readers will be surprised at how much fun the identification and discussion of bacteria can be. The author's execution of the guide -- her excellent and enthusiastic writing style and her choices of which bacteria to discuss -- makes this the rare field guide that one can read from cover to cover. The book discusses everything from bacteria in hot springs to those that make cheese or pickles, to those in animal intestines. There are beautiful (yes, beautiful) color plates, great suggested experiments, and guides to finding different kinds of bacteria. The author makes the subject interesting, funny and captivating -- and she uses exclamation points without irony! All in all an excellent book -- don't be scared off by the title; any nature- or science-lover you know will thoroughly enjoy it. ... Read more

Book Description

DNA Technology, Second Edition, is a survey of biotechnology written to enlighten readers about the breakthroughs made possible by the science and technologies associated with current DNA research. Ed Alcamo gives the educated layperson a survey of DNA by presenting a brief history of genetics, a clear outline of techniques that are in use, and indications of breakthroughs in cloning and other DNA advances. Appropriate for a wide range of courses for non-biology majors, including a ODNA for Lawyers course or allied health and nursing courses.

* An introductory treatment of aspects of DNA technology written to enlighten the reader about the breakthroughs made possible by the science and technologies associated with DNA
* Emphasizes the practical implications and applications of the new genetic technologies; readers will come away saying, "So that's what DNA technology is all about!"
* Helps students, business people, lawyers, and jurists gain more confidence in their ability to to understand and appreciate DNA technology and human genetics
* Persons with genetic diseases will gain a clearer understanding of their afflictions and understand the bases for possible cures
* Agriculturists will have insight into the genetic basis for gene-altered plants and animals
* The general public will better appreciate the nature and reasons for the Human Genome Project now in progress ... Read more

Reviews (3)

Excellent book
Easy read, topics explained well. Would definitely recommend this book for anyone wanting to learn more about biotechnology.

Great Book for Beginners
This is a great book for beginners - easy to understand, yet you can grasp some big pictures. Serious learners might want to look for more advanced level books, as I had to use other books whenever I needed to learn in depth.

The best academic general guide
Are you looking for something usefull and can be understood clearly at the first time?This is the most helpfull guide if you are not proffessio nally working on a research.For collegers and Eastern universities:Ferfect introduction to the field.Do not worry not to having enought experience on the field.This book will carry you to where ever you want to go. ... Read more

Reviews (3)

Absolutely Terrific
This text is just really great. The choice of words that go into the explanations are top notch. This was the requred textbook in my recombinant DNA course.

It is written by biologists for biologists; very technical very exact; again just absolutely terrific for both review and in depth understanding.

The only downfall I would say is that the Index isn't as good as it could be, but other than that I think every biology graduate student should own it....yeah its that good IMHO.

Excellent overview of a very exciting field
Certainly one of the most exciting developments in the last quarter century, genetic engineering is also one of the most controversial, and discussions of it are typically accompanied by vehemence and exaggerations. An objective study of genetic engineering is thus mandatory for everyone in the 21st century. This book is one of the best treatments of genetic engineering that I have read, and I am speaking not as a biologist but as someone actively involved in bioinformatics and computational biology. The explanations of the techniques of genetic engineering are excellent and the reader with a fairly good background in biochemistry should have no problem following the presentation. Readers without such a background will find the reading a little more demanding. One can only admire the ingenuity of the many researchers and technicians who have developed these techniques. The only thing missing in the book are exercises at the end of each chapter to test the readers understanding of the relevant concepts.

The last five chapters of the book are the most interesting ,for it is in these chapters that the authors discuss the genetic manipulation of animals, transgenic strategies, and biotechnology. We are all priveleged to be witnessing the development of new breeds of plants and animals, and hopefully this trend will continue in the 21st century. The impact of genetic engineering for medicine and agriculture will be immense, but even more mundance activities such as gardening and horticulture will be even more interesting with the development of new kinds of plants via transgenic strategies. In addition, genetic engineering is finding applications to areas outside of biology. It was recently reported that genetically engineered viruses are being used to assist in the development of quantum dots in microelectronics.

Some of the features of the book I found particularly helpful or interesting were: 1. The numerous diagrams employed in the book that tie concepts together or give flow charts for laboratory procedures. 2. The discussion on the physics of gel electrophoresis. Apparently the dynamics of stained molecules undergoing electrophoresis is poorly understood. 3. The historical and anecdotal information that the authors include at various places in the book. 4. The discussion on optimizing translation. The degeneracy of the genetic code might lead one to believe that the choice of codons by genes is essentially a random process. The authors argue this is not the case and give excellent references for further reading on this. Apparently protein translation is a tight scheme, and again, this is surprising given the degeneracy of the genetic code. 5. The box on express sequence tags. The most interesting part of this discussion was on the legal issues involving the patenting of ESTs. The patent applications were rejected because ESTs were viewed as incomplete sequences. This rejection might serve as a precedent to future attempts to patent genes or complete genomes. Will some of these patents be rejected on the grounds that genes do not completely determine the protein(s) or phenotype(s)? Whatever the outcome, the legal profession in the 21st century will have to deal with information-theoretic criteria when addressing patent issues in genetic engineering. 6. The listing of the Internet tools available for gene sequencing and protein structure. 7. The discussion on the quantitative effect of sequence accuracy on gene accuracy, assuming the random occurence of sequencing errors. The diagram shown of average sequence-error rate versus the fraction of error-free genes shows clearly the importance of robust and precise sequence-similarity search algorithms. Interestingly, the authors argue that, in spite of the success of statistical methods in these algorithms, the use of these methods will decrease as new sequences are accumulated and sequence conservation is used as the criterion for gene identification. They do however state that these methods will still remain useful for localizing frame shifts and for the choice of the initiation codon. 8. The box on the modes of replication of circular DNA molecules. The biophysicist reader will appreciate the discussion on the two types of replication: by theta-like structures or the rolling-circle type of mechanism. 9. The discussion on applications of transgenic mice, position effects, and transgene silencing. The authors discussion of the efficacy of transgenic strategies in mice progeny is fascinating in that some mice progeny has expression that was very different from that of the parents, or even absent. The authors give a brief discussion of boundary elements and matrix attachment regions with references for further reading. 10. The short discussion on transgenic fish. 11. The box on control of transgene expression in plants. 12. The discussion on the use of immunosuppressant drugs as chemical inducers of dimerization. The side effects of these drugs has prompted research into finding transgene induction strategies that do not have these side-effects. 13. The discussion on post-translational inducible protein activity. 13. The discussion on visible marker genes, especially the discussion on green flourescent protein. 15. The discussion on the use of antisense RNA to regulate gene expression in prokaryotes. 16. The discussion on the use of cosuppression in increasing the amount of pigment synthesized by petunia flowers. The application of transgenic strategies to horticulture is indeed exciting and one that will hopefully result in new varieties of houseplants and garden fruits and vegetables. 17. The discussion on the role of functional genomics. 18. Transgenic animals and plants as bioreactors: Tracy and her progeny in producing AAT. 19. Xenotransplantation. This is no doubt one of the most controversial techniques used in genetic engineering today.

Genetic manipulation
We are looking for information about genetic manipulatio ... Read more

Book Description

Protein NMR Spectroscopy: Principles and Practice combines a comprehensive theoretical treatment of high resolution NMR spectroscopy with an extensive exposition of the experimental techniques applicable to proteins and other biological macromolecules. Beginning with simple theoretical models and experimental techniques, Protein NMR Spectroscopy: Principles and Practice develops the complete repertoire of theoretical principals and experimental practices necessary for understanding and implementing the most sophisticated NMR experiments. Protein NMR Spectroscopy: Principles and Practice is written as a graduate-level textbook and will be of particular interest to biochemists, chemists, biophysicists, and structural biologists who utilize NMR spectroscopy as a research tool or who wish to remain abreast of the latest developments in this increasingly important area.

* Special Features:
* First book to combine detailed NMR theory discussions with experimental applications to biomolecules.
* All the theory required to understand these experiments and others.
* Easy to follow progression from a fundamental level to an advanced level.
* Theory of NMR and practical applications for biomolecular investigations presented.
* Theory applied to very practical situations.
* Comprehensive treatment of different "levels" of theory from simple ideas to density matrix analysis and operator practices.
* Comprehensive description of multi dimensional NMR experiments as applied to unlabeled, 15N-labeled and doubly (13C/15N) labeled proteins. ... Read more

Reviews (1)

Useful Handbook for Protein NMR study
The book is very complete, covers most of the field in protein NMR studies. The book is well organised, with plenty of figures to facilitate easy understanding of the subject. Overall, I find it is very helpful for anyone who will be interested in protein NMR research. I have actually seen quite a number of copies in a few NMR laboratories and I would recommand this book to all those who are looking for an complete introductory book in NMR and protein study. ... Read more

Book Description

An Introduction to Tissue-Biomaterial Interactions acquaints an undergraduate audience with the fundamental biological processes that influence these sophisticated, cutting-edge procedures.  Chapters one through three provide more detail about the molecular-level events that happen at the tissue-implant interface, while chapters four through ten explore selected material, biological, and physiological consequences of these events. The importance of the body’s wound-healing response is emphasized throughout. Specific topics covered include:    Structure and properties of biomaterials  Proteins  Protein-surface interactions  Blood-biomaterial interactions  Inflammation and infection  The immune system  Biomaterial responses to implantation  Biomaterial surface engineering  Intimal hyperplasia and osseointegration as examples of tissue-biomaterial interactions  The text also provides extensive coverage of the three pertinent interfaces between the body and the biomaterial, between the body and the living cells, and between the cells and the biomaterial that are critical in the development of tissue-engineered products that incorporate living cells within a biomaterial matrix.  Ideal for a one-semester, biomedical engineering course, An Introduction to Tissue-Biomaterial Interactions provides a solid framework for understanding today’s and tomorrow’s implantable biomedical devices.

  ... Read more

Reviews (1)

Excellent Book
"...excellent attention to detail...recommended for graduate students, faculty and researchers, and bioengineers and physicians." (Choice, Vol. 40, No. 6, February 2003) ... Read more

Amazon.com

Can a human being be reduced to the sum of his or her body's parts? In a curious turnaround, science and industry are making the case that our selves are separate from and even the owners of our flesh and bone, rather than the meat machines 20th-century biologists posited. That this reversal is to their advantage and profit is the theme of Body Bazaar: The Market for Human Tissue in the Biotechnology Age.

Authors Lori B. Andrews and Dorothy Nelkin, each intimately involved in the struggle to define the laws and issues of the biotech age, make a strong and clear case against the newfound rights of business interests to harvest our bodies and derive exclusive profit from the resulting products and processes. Though some of their arguments are unconvincing--while it is certainly true that many cultures hold blood and other tissues sacred or at least taboo, such beliefs would seem to pale before, say, a cure for cancer--on the whole, the reader is left with a sense of urgency that harm is being done to an unsuspecting population of health care consumers unknowingly mined for new biological properties and to humanity itself, rightly expecting the same selflessness from the medical community that eradicated smallpox and smashed polio with little to no profit for the principals. Using stories of individuals injured or abused by the increasingly rapacious biotech industry and their own careful analysis of the changing intellectual property laws governing the mess, the authors warn of a dehumanized world unimaginable even a few decades ago. Whether we'll avoid the pitfalls of our new tech or simply cope with the results is a question for history. --Rob Lightner ... Read more

Reviews (2)

Easy Read for the Non-scientist
Andrews and Nelkin have done a good job of describing the burgeoning field of biotechnology in layman's terms. Although redundant at times, the authors get right down to the nitty-gritty on issues of tissue marketing, genetic manipulation, assisted reproduction, embryonic research, cloning and other current topics. The book also explores the ethical issues of these rapidly expanding fields, which is particularly relevant in view of the money to be made on lucrative discoveries by researchers and companies who place the bottom line above human rights. This book is recommended for anyone who wants to know about DNA but is afraid to ask.

Who Owns Your Body?
If you took a human being and dismantled the body into its elements of carbon, hydrogen, oxygen, phosphorus, and the rest, you would get a collection of pure chemicals that used to estimated as worth 89 cents. That's what you get if you take all the information and structure away. Information and structure within our bodies are worth something, and are worth more and more every day as we are able to understand them better. And here's a disturbing thought: someone else may own those particular details on your own particular body. And sell them.

According to Lori Andrews and Dorothy Nelkin, in their troubling book _Body Bazaar: The Market for Human Tissue in the Biotechnology Age_ (Crown Publications), that's happening often. It happened to John Moore, who about fifteen years ago was being treated by a specialist for hairy-cell leukemia. As you can imagine, such treatment required a lot of tests on Mr. Moore's body, but it seemed to Moore that there were too many going on, and that the doctor was secretive, and insistent that the blood, and then bone marrow and skin and semen, had to be obtained at his own lab. Moore investigated, and found that he had become patent number 4,438,032. The doctor had found that there were certain unique chemicals in Moore's blood, and the pharmaceutical company Sandoz had reportedly paid $15 million for the right to develop a cell line taken from Moore. The doctor seems to have said that he had found a "gold mine" in Moore, and Moore indeed felt he had been "harvested." So, of course, Moore sued for property theft. In 1990, the California Supreme Court ruled in favor of the doctor, saying in effect that Moore didn't own his body parts, but the ones who discovered and patented them did.

Author Andrews is a legal scholar and bioethicist at the Illinois Institute of Technology, and Nelkin is a New York University professor of law. They offer many other troubling examples of what we would intuitively regard as people's rights to their own body chemistry being smashed for the profits of gene-hunters and corporations.

Issues of genes are not the only problems covered in this worrisome book, which is an excellent introduction into a world we are just now making for ourselves. It also considers such things as the ownership of bodies which are prepared for artistic display; the Korean Ear Mound in Kyoto, Japan, a collection of body trophies from the Japanese-Korean War four hundred years ago; and the web sales of a firm called Skulls Unlimited. The genetic issues, because of their novelty, are certainly the most enigmatic, and the authors quite rightly raise questions about non-medical issues such as DNA typing of criminals, military people, or minorities to go into a computer whose usage may be unlimited. It is perhaps regrettable that the final chapter of the book, where one would expect intelligent recommendations for solutions, is only seven pages long, and contains more questions than answers. That is, I suppose, only because the book is one of the first calls to look at a new and serious ethical, scientific, and corporate problem. Perhaps we will have answers in the future, but it is a strange territory we are traveling through, and it is clear that we need somehow to change the road we are on. ... Read more

Amazon.com

Human beings have always hungered for immortality. But even in myths, those who find the secrets of eternal life often have to pay a high price. Michael West, CEO of Advanced Cell Technology, has spent most of his career as a biotechnologist seeking ways to make mammalian cells live forever. His successes put him at the center of political, moral, and religious firestorms. In The Immortal Cell, West offers not only a chronology of the emerging science of immortality, but a personal journal of his own path from strict creationist to ardent scientist seeking to shape human evolution. It was West and his cohorts who announced in 2001 that by inserting a person's own DNA into an unfertilized egg cell from a woman of reproductive age, they could create embryonic stem cells--cells that might be able to repair any number of problems for the DNA donor, including burns, cancer, degenerative disorders, and even normal aging. Accused of "playing God," West became one of the central figures in the debates on human cloning and was compared to Osama bin Laden by one histrionic news agent. In The Immortal Cell, West describes both the research and the furor that followed. Though the biology is a little tough for general readers, West does a fine job of using diagrams and step-by-step descriptions to explain his processes of cell culture and manipulation. The debate over therapeutic cloning of human cells is far from over, and readers seeking to better understand the debate will find West's book an unapologetic, one-sided argument in favor of human stem cell research. --Therese Littleton ... Read more

Reviews (8)

Brilliant and Passionate
Excellent reicital of one scientist's search for the means to prolong human life. I found it to be a very good introduction to concepts such as stem cells and telomerase - areas I had only vague knowledge. But the best part of the book is its description of Dr. West's passion for ending human death and mortality. Dr. West echoes many thoughts I have had myself - man does not want to die! Despite the narrow minded opposition of obsolete religious teachings, science will find the way to overcome and we will reach one of mankind most long soughts yearnings. Perhaps we will lose part of our humanity in doing so, but in my opinion it will be a transformational change that takes us to the next level of life. This book describes one possible approach on this journey.

WELL WRITTEN!
This book is an excellent foray into the world of longevity research and cellular study. I, as a layman, never lost the focus of the author's intent. I hope we do not have to wait to long for his next book.

Great book.....hope he writes another!
I wasn't sure if I would get "into" this book or not, but I found it hard to put down at the end of the lunch break or at night. Very interesting and the good doc describes even the most complex science in terms that are easy to understand-without making the reader feel like a dummy! I wish President Bush and other lawmakers would take the time to read this book to get the facts behind the science before making any more legislation regarding stem cell research.

Tinkering with the atom - now tinkering with human DNA...
Dr. Michael West is a brilliant man in search of high tech ways to cure catastrophic diseases & pathologies - such as type I Diabetes, Quadriplegia, cancer and heart damage from heart attacks. All noble quests to benefit mankind. The only problem with this is that along with the potential to help mankind with regenerative medicine concepts, therein lies another darker potential. The corruptability of such an endeaver, and yes, there are always those equally brilliant scientists out there who are willing to tweak the bad that generates from the good.
West goes into vague detail explaining what stem cells are, and what the science can acheive in medicine, and cloning. I wish he went into further depth giving examples and photos of what he witnessed under the microscope. If he would have included some slides, I would have given the book a 5 star rating instead of the 4. It is a good book that gives readers a taste of this controversial topic. He further explains how Dolly the sheep came to be in this world, and yes, the sheep was named after Dolly Parton, the country singer, because the sheep was cloned out of a cell from the breast tissue of another sheep.
All this research into the mortal cell costs millions, perhaps billions of dollars, $$$, but in the end, the goal is not to prolong life forever. It's really to maintain the quality of life for all, especially the aged. Dr. West is very compassionate towards the elderly in our world, and it's good to see that somebody is passionate about curing the ails that often accompany old age.
One question that I have for Dr. West is what should the average life expectancy be for people? 100? 110?
Curing hearing and sight loss, kidney failure, liver failure are all good things that could come from recombinant DNA therapy.
But the dark side could promote supernatural human beings; turning engineered cells into engineered people. These 'superpeople' can potentially outthink, outperform and ultimately - wipe out the current natural human race that we have spent millions of years evolving into. If these cloned people reproduced with regular human beings, something called germ-line genetic modification, something terribly wrong could happen. This is one of the kind Doctor's admitted fears.
Our standard of living would become too high to sustain or even achieve. It would create many insurmountable problems the world has never known.
Tinkering with the atom in the Manhatten Project ultimately brought us terrorism as we know it today. Could those brilliant scientists not see the disaster behind the discovery?
Now our modern scientists are tinkering with the human genome project. It is mapped out and published. Scientists such as Dr. West wish to exploit this important and exciting discovery to help mankind, but we must be wary of the ever present dark side of all good creations.
Are we ready to make this scientific leap?
Read the book and ponder the answer...I have no answers at this point---the book contains arguments both ways, but leans towards the pro and dismisses the con pretty blantantly.
Nonetheless, it is a very interesting read, and contains somewhat technical ideas in it, which only encourages me to further research the topic of theraputic cloning and stem cell research.

Brilliant
A brilliant, autobiographical account of discoveries concerning telomerase, stem cells, and cloning. West is a genius. ... Read more

Book Description

Sequence similarity is a powerful tool for discovering biological function. Just as the ancient Greeks used comparative anatomy to understand the human body and linguists used the Rosetta stone to decipher Egyptian hieroglyphs, today we can use comparative sequence analysis to understand genomes. BLAST (Basic Local Alignment Search Tool), is a sophisticated software package for rapid searching of nucleotide and protein databases. It is one of the most important software packages used in sequence analysis and bioinformatics. Most users of BLAST, however, seldom move beyond the program's default parameters, and never take advantage of its full power.BLAST is the only book completely devoted to this popular suite of tools. It offers biologists, computational biology students, and bioinformatics professionals a clear understanding of BLAST as well as the science it supports.This book shows you how to move beyond the default parameters, get specific answers using BLAST, and how to interpret your results. The book also contains tutorial and reference sections covering NCBI-BLAST and WU-BLAST, background material to help you understand the statistics behind BLAST, Perl scripts to help you prepare your data and analyze your results, and a wealth of tips and tricks for configuring BLAST to meet your own research needs. ... Read more

Reviews (4)

useful for comparative sequence alignment tasks
BLAST is a well-known tool for bioinformatics (biological sciences+computer sciences). In this book contains a concepts of central dogma of molecular biology, sequence aligment, sequece similarity, practical BLAST programs (divide into 5 programs), and how to install and use BLAST tool. Moreover, it also offers enough tips to improve my BLAST searches usage. I think this book's content is well-writing and well-organizing for comparative sequeces alignment tasks. I use this book to begin in bioinformatics and it can help me to learn about this. But this book does not contain all of things that I want to known on bioinformatics or computational biology.

How does sequence alignment actually work?
If you want to understand the nuts and bolts of how sequence alignment works, then this is the book for you. It will be especially useful for BLAST users who want to understand how it actually works and also for developers who don't know much biology, struggle with the math, but have no problem reading a perl script.

The book is basically divided into:
0. A Foreword by Stephen Altschul (the co-creator of BLAST)
1. A quick web intro to a BLAST search
2. Sequence alignment and how the algorithms work
3. Blast and how the Blast statistics are calculated
4. The different types of Blast e.g. WU-Blast
5. Approaches to Performance speedup
6. Reference sections on BLAST parameters

The real key is that this book neatly splits the difference between academic texts and papers which are quite often too difficult to read without sufficient background (and they are not precise about the implementation anyway) and the user-manual type texts which don't discuss the theory at all.

One of the best chapters (in my view) is chapter three, where they explain and illustrate the workings of the Needleman-Wunsch and Smith-Waterman algorithms for global and local alignment. If you read the text, then study and run the included perl code, you WILL understand how they work, but be prepared to spend several hours trying different examples. The real advantage of this approach is that you get a deep, practical understanding of how alignment actually works, that you just can't get from reading a mathematical treatment of the subject. Once you understand this chapter, you are actually sufficiently expert to get inside alignment code and modify it for your own purposes.

Ian Korf does continually emphasize that the algorithms may look clever, but they are, in the end, robotic in that they will quite happily align complete rubbish if you are not careful about controlling the algorithm and thinking carefully about the results you get.

There are a couple of mistakes in the diagrams (chap 3), that are addressed in the errata, but the perl code is correct.

Finally, because this book is about BLAST, it doesn't mention other methods of sequence alignment such as Hidden-Markov Models or methods of multiple sequence alignment. Perhaps they'll do a book on those as well one day..

Author comments
As the first reviewer mentioned, the book is not a fast read. In order
to run BLAST properly one must understand how and why it works. BLAST
exists at the intersection of molecular biology, computer science, and
statistics. This might sound intimidating, but once you read about these
topics in chapters 2-4, you'll see that it isn't so complicated and it
all fits together nicely. We know that BLAST users come from a variety
of backgrounds and we have therefore written the book for a general
audience. As a result, the book is more than just a BLAST manual, it's
also a friendly introduction to computational molecular biology.

Writing this book took a lot of time and effort. It went through some
painful transformations. The authors waged many battles against
themselves and each other to bring to you the kind of book we wished we
could have bought several years ago. We'll feel our work was justified
if you approach your next BLAST search as a scientific experiment and
not a Google search. And if we've helped some of you to embark on a new
career/hobby in bioinformatics, drop us a line, it's sure to make our
day.

This IS a book about BLAST!
Useful book for biologists to understand computer algorithm. This book is very helpful if you are going through endless BLAST search. It is not a fast read but it is packed with useful information. I have started using the suggested examples and tricks in this book and feel more comfortable at doing the search. Important book for Bioinformatics researchers! ... Read more

Book Description

Medeva Pharma Ltd., Liverpool, UK. Review of both conventional and novel isolation techniques used in industrial applications for the downstream processing of protein molecules. Includes primary and secondary separations during the isolation of biomolecules, and laboratory-scale research methods with a potential for scale up. For researchers. ... Read more

Book Description

Consisting of 13 chapters, this book is uniformly written by Dr. Hayes and his colleagues Drs. Lloyd and Friedman to provide sensible, matter-of-fact methods for understanding and caring for patients with permanent pacemakers and ICDs.It presents a logical progression from descriptions of device indications to selection of the most appropriate mode and hardware.From there, it proceeds to device implantation and subsequent management, with detailed sections on troubleshooting, complications, and follow-up.Not intended as an encyclopedic text, this book offers a large amount of information in an easily digestible form.

This book is meant to help the reader understand the technical capabilities of pacemakers and ICDs, and how to apply this knowledge to make everyday clinical encounters easier and more productive.From the first pacemaker implantation in 1958 and the first implantable cardioverter-defibrillator (ICD) implantation in 1980, the fields of cardiac pacing and defibrillation have enjoyed a rapid increase in the sophistication and effectiveness of implantable devices.Because these technologies are encountered more and more commonly in today's clinical settings, it is important for physicians to learn "practical approaches" to pacemaker and ICD implantation.

Whether new to cardiac pacing and defibrillation or seeing large numbers of patients with implantable devices on a daily basis, cardiologists and electrophysiologists alike will appreciate the knowledge and experience shared by the authors of this book. ... Read more

Reviews (1)

Cardiac Pacing for the Millenium
An incredibly well written and expertly researched book! ... Read more

Book Description

Fundamental Concepts of Bioinformatics is the first book co-authored by a biologist and computer scientist that is specifically designed to make bioinformatics accessible and provide readers for more advanced work. Readers learn what programs are available for analyzing data, how to understand the basic algorithms that underlie these programs, what bioinformatic research is like, and other basic concepts. Information flows easily from one topic to the next, with enough detail to support the major concepts without overwhelming readers. Problems at the end of each chapter use real data to help readers apply what they have learned so they know how to critically evaluate results from both a statistical and biological point of view.Focus on fundamentally important algorithms at the core of bioinformatics.For anyone interested in bioinformatics (in biology or computer science), computational biology, molecular biology, or genomics. ... Read more

Reviews (1)

good undergrad/opening text
Features

First bioinformatics primer for undergraduates. Personable writing style and numerous analogies make this text accessible to undergraduates.

Focus on fundamentally important algorithms at the core of bioinformatics.

Easy-to-do "paper and pencil" calculations make fundamental algorithms unintimidating for biology students and accessible to students with limited experience in computer programming.

Combined expertise (biology and computer science) of author team ensures an integrated approach and an appreciation for the biology and computer science tools and perspectives.

End-of-Chapter summaries tie together key concepts and provide real-world examples of the algorithms presented.

Detailed solutions to selected text questions are provided in the back of the text so students can check their answers.

Annotated Reading Material sections at the end of each chapter direct students to additional resources for further explanation.

Questions and problems at the end of each chapter help students apply their understanding of the material.

Contents

MOLECULAR BIOLOGY AND BIOLOGICAL CHEMISTRY.
DATA SEARCHES AND PAIRWISE ALIGNMENTS.
SUBSTITUTION PATTERNS.
DISTANCE-BASED METHODS OF PHYLOGENETICS.
CHARACTER-BASED APPROACHES TO PHYLOGENETICS.
GENOMICS AND GENE RECOGNITION.
PROTEIN FOLDING.
PROTEOMICS. ... Read more

Book Description

A fascinating glimpse inside the life-and-death business of biotechnology.

"A tour-de-force for anyone who is interested in the biotech industry. I applaud the enormous achievement of Cynthia Robbins-Roth." -Frederick Frank, Senior Managing Director & Vice Chair, Lehman Brothers

"From Alchemy to IPO tells the dramatic story of this revolutionary industry as only an insider can." -George Rathmann, President and CEO, ICOS Corporation, Chairman Emeritus, Amgen

Written by a well-known industry insider, From Alchemy to IPO addresses the coming-of-age of biotech products and companies and traces the history of biotechnology from its early inception in the seventies to today's heyday of new solutions and breakthrough treatments. It describes the amazing entrepreneurial trail of product development, novel business models, and critical trials that eventually pave the way to market. This is the first book to accurately record the inner workings of an industry-biotechnology-that's on the verge of living up to its monumental promise to change the world as we know it. ... Read more

Reviews (21)

Well written, fast paced, yet thorough
The author's expertise in science, finance, management strategy, and journalism all pay off in this very well written book. It's both lively and fact-packed, with quite a few tables covering dozens or hundreds of IPOs in the biotech industry. It gives a spectrum of biotech probably much broader than what any one reader would be familiar with. In a few places, I would have liked a bit more detail: for example, in the IPO chapter, a paragraph about exactly what the investment bank "does", how it "does" it, what its risks are in taking on an IPO, etc.

making sense out of chaos
dr. robbins-roth's book is the best example i've seen of a text which makes sense of the short yet tangled history of the biotech business. from it's beginning, the biotech business has attracted the dreamers, the -don't-know-how-we'll-get- there-but-we-must-get-there types, and the scientific whiz-kids. this book not only charts the progress of the companies and the products, it also delves into the science and personalities behind the scene. this book is written at a level accessible to the layman, but is complex enough that professionals in the biological sciences will not find it too pedestrian. this is one of the most interesting, hardest-to-put-down science books i've read in many years.

Brilliant Overview
This is a great overview of the world of biotech. The author explains the science with clarity and enthusiasm and the introduction this book provides to the corporate side of biotech is also very interesting and well written.

bad writing
I read the first 20 pages of this book and quit. It was too painful to keep going. The author's wording in convoluted, tangential, and just plain annoying. She throws out dozens of names from the industry, so many you can't keep them straight. There is poor flow to the writing, so you cannot understand why she is telling you things from one line to the next. The topics of each paragraph jump from one subject to another with abrupt, confusing transitions. I returned the book!

Clear and non hyped intro into biotech
I'll be starting a biomedical engineering Ph.D. program in the fall and have read recently a few books on the biotech subject. This one gave the clearest picture of the biotech industries, the companies in them, how to manage and finance them, as well as how to recognize solid biotech companies for investing purposes. A quick and entertaining read for anyone interested in the business behind biotechnology. ... Read more

Book Description

Building on the proven strength of Russell's step-by-step problem-solving approach, Essential iGenetics blends a classic, Mendel-first approach with modern molecular coverage. This easy-to-read introduction to genetics presents full coverage of the subject in a brief and manageable format. Readers develop and apply critical thinking skills as they work step-by-step through a number of solved genetics problems. Readers can also apply the principles and techniques learned to a variety of problems at the end of each chapter.The book covers basic genetics principles, with balanced coverage of Mendel, historical experiments, and cutting-edge chapters on Genome Analysis and Molecular Evolution.For anyone interested in genetics. ... Read more

Book Description

A Primer of Conservation Biology, Third Edition incorporates background, theory, and examples in a lively and readable text that will appeal to a wide audience and stimulate interest in conservation biology. The book provides the most up-to-date perspective on many high-profile issues in the field, such as sustainable development, the effectiveness of conservation laws and treaties, the design of conservation areas, classification of conservation threats, and strategies to save species on the verge of extinction.

The Primer is divided into five chapters, focusing successively on biological diversity and its value, the threats to biological diversity, conservation at the population and species levels, protecting and managing habitats and ecosystems, and human societies and sustainable development. Case studies are included to demonstrate the controversies in the field, and to stimulate thought and discussion. The book provides many examples of successful conservation approaches and ends with suggestions for a future agenda. Throughout, the choice of examples is well balanced to show the full range of species, habitats, and geographic areas of the world. The links between conservation biology and environmental law, environmental economics, philosophy, social sciences and anthropology, park management, and government policy are clearly presented.

The book is very well illustrated, includes an extensive bibliography (covering literature through 2004) and a glossary, and has an annotated list of suggested readings and discussion questions at the end of each chapter. Sources of further information are given in an Appendix. A Primer of Conservation Biology is ideally suited for use in short undergraduate courses, either as a stand-alone text or supplemented by outside readings. It can also be used effectively as a supplemental resource for courses in introductory biology, general ecology, population biology, environmental science, and wildlife management. Its broad perspective, concise format, and appealing writing style make the Primer the perfect choice for students, volunteers, professionals, government policymakers, and others who are eager to learn more about conservation biology. These same qualities give the book a strong appeal to students whose first language is not English. ... Read more

Reviews (1)

Excellent introduction to Conservation Biology
Rihard Primack's Essentials of Conservation Biology was the the first textbook to present the fledgling field of conservation biology in a comprehennsive fashion. His Primer of Conservation Biology presents complex topics in a manner that makes this information accessible to a wider readership. The book covers a broad range of topics that includes an accounting of the origins and history of the field of conservation biology. The basic operating principles are offered with numerous examples of their application to real world problems. The author has chosen these examples from many different parts of the world so that all readers can relate to the practical approaches cited. This book serves as an excellent introductory text for readers that want a thorough introduction to conservation biology and access to the jargon of the field. I have recommended this book to students considering entering the field as well as to non-scientists that wish to become familiar with the basics of this new branch of science. ... Read more