Book Description

This book teaches chemistry at an appropriate level of rigor while removing the confusion and insecurity that impairs success. Prep chem frequently intimidates people; Bishop's text shows them how to break the material down and master it. The system of objectives tells readers exactly what they must learn in each chapter and where to find it. The text and superb illustrations provide a solid conceptual framework and address misconceptions. From that basis, readers learn to strategize problems and solve them in logical steps. The Examples and Exercises give plenty of confidence-building practice; the end-of-chapter problems test the reader's mastery.For college instructors and students. ... Read more

Reviews (2)

Good if you need quick quick coverage.
Nicely summed up by the reviewer below. If you need a very quick-and-dirty review, this is good. I take points off due to the lack of index and some weak sections. At this point, QBank leads me to believe that this book may not cover everything I needed to know.. but good for last minute stuff, especially if you hate Biochem like myself.

Good choice for USMLE
High Yield Biochemistry is the perfect book for a one or two day board review. It is easy reading without the complex charts and detail needed in the first year of medical school. The book does miss some major points. Vitamin overdoses are weak, as are some major disorders/deficiencies like Diabetes, G6pdh, Hbs/Hbc, and purine salvage. ... Read more

Book Description

This is the definitive text in a market consisting of senior and graduate environmental engineering students who are taking a chemistry course.The text is divided into a chemistry fundamentals section and a section on water and wastewater analysis.In this new edition, the authors have retained the thorough, yet concise, coverage of basic chemical principles from general, physical, equilibrium, organic, biochemistry, colloid, and nuclear chemistry. In addition, the authors have retained their classic two-fold approach of (1) focusing on the aspects of chemistry that are particularly valuable for solving environmental problems, and (2) laying the groundwork for understanding water and wastewater analysis-a fundamental basis of environmental engineering practice and research. ... Read more

Reviews (1)

Must Have For All Environmental Engineers
This is one book which an engineer esp an environemtal engineer must have as it starts from basics and takes you to complex situations making them understandable. ... Read more

Book Description

FUNDAMENTALS OF ANALYTICAL CHEMISTRY, EIGHTH EDITION is known for its readability combined with a systematic, rigorous approach that characterizes this classic text. Extensive coverage of the principles and practices of quantitative chemistry ensures suitability for chemistry majors. These award-winning authors include applications throughout industry, medicine, and all the sciences. The text's new design and wealth of new photographs by renowned chemistry photographer Charlie Winters serve to reinforce student learning through dynamic visuals. Reflecting the increased emphasis of spreadsheets as a tool in analytical chemistry, this new edition adds an additional chapter, new problems and a new supplement, EXCEL® APPLICATIONS FOR ANALYTICAL CHEMISTRY, that integrate this important aspect of the study of analytical chemistry into its already rich pedagogy. In addition, the INTERACTIVE ANALYTICAL CHEMISTRY CD-ROM, packaged FREE with every new text, enhances conceptual understanding through hands-on integrated multimedia interactivity. ... Read more

Reviews (4)

Lousy textbook, Chemistry students beware!
I have had nothing but problems with this book. The practice problems in the chapter do not reflect the ones at the end of the chapter, which pretty much leaves it up to you to figure out what is going on. The chapters are not well written in the first place! Very hard to follow! There is no supplemental solution manual to follow along with so you can see how the practice problems were solved. I could go on and on. In general, possibly the worst chemistry text I have ever had to use.

Average
Reasonably solid text, but far to many errors. A source of frusrtration for anyone trying to learn quickly.

awful textbook
Obviously I am a disgruntled chemistry student. I will be graduating Cum Laude this spring, and I just suffered through Quantitative Analysis using this book. The problems do not match the examples, there is little background given to the concepts described, and there is no study guide that shows the methods needed to solve problems. My Thermal Physics instructor finally gave up using another Saunders book for the same reasons. Saunders books are more devoted to working problems than describing or teaching the processes that occur. I urge any instructors considering this book to look for a different text!!

Toatal Analytical chemistry
Indepth coverage by the author is the most creditable aspect of the book.The book is comprehensive and for any one it is like a complete motion picture(from beginning to the end) about the subject of analytical chemistry.The negative side is that the number of problems covered in certain topics as qualitative analysis is less.But it is way ahead as far as the depth of coverage is concerned.I suggest that any body interested in the subject of analytical chemistry must take a look at this book. ... Read more

Book Description

Probablistic models are becoming increasingly important in analyzing the huge amount of data being produced by large-scale DNA-sequencing efforts such as the Human Genome Project.For example, hidden Markov models are used for analyzing biological sequences, linguistic-grammar-based probabilistic models for identifying RNA secondary structure, and probabilistic evolutionary models for inferring phylogenies of sequences from different organisms. This book gives a unified, up-to-date and self-contained account, with a Bayesian slant, of such methods, and more generally to probabilistic methods of sequence analysis. Written by an interdisciplinary team of authors, it is accessible to molecular biologists, computer scientists, and mathematicians with no formal knowledge of the other fields, and at the same time presents the state of the art in this new and important field. ... Read more

Reviews (11)

Excellent overview of probabilistic computational biology
This book is a very well written overview to hidden Markov models and context-free grammar methods in computational biology. The authors have written a book that is useful to both biologists and mathematicians. Biologists with a background in probability theory equivalent to a senior-level course should be able to follow along without any trouble. The approach the author's take in the book is very intuitive and they motivate the concepts with elementary examples before moving on to the more abstract definitions. Exercises also abound in the book, and they are straightforward enough to work out, and should be if one desires an in-depth understanding of the main text. In addition, there is a software package called HMMER, developed by one of the authors (Eddy) that is in the public domain and can be downloaded from the Internet. The package specifically uses hidden Markov models to perform sequence analysis using the methods outlined in the book.

Probabilistic modeling has been applied to many different areas, including speech recognition, network performance analysis, and computational radiology. An overview of probabilistic modeling is given in the first chapter, and the authors effectively introduce the concepts without heavy abstract formalism, which for completeness they delegate to the last chapter of the book. Bayesian parameter estimation is introduced as well as maximum likelihood estimation. The authors take a pragmatic attitude in the utility of these different approaches, with both being developed in the book.

This is followed by a treatment of pairwise alignment in Chapter Two, which begins with substitution matrices. They point out, via some exercises, the role of physics in influencing particular alignments (hydrophobicity for example). Global alignment via the Gotoh algorithm and local alignment via the Smith-Waterman algorithm, are both discussed very effectively. Finite state machines with accompanying diagrams are used to discuss dynamic programming approaches to sequence alignment. The BLAST and FASTA packages are briefly discussed, along with the PAM and BLOSUM matrices.

Hidden Markov models are treated thoroughly in the next chapter with the Viterbi and Baum-Welch algorithms playing the central role. HIdden Markov models are then used in Chapter 4 for pairwise alignment. State diagrams are again used very effectively to illustrate the relevant ideas. Profile hidden Markov models which, according to the authors are the most popular application of hidden Markov models, are treated in detail in the next chapter. A very surprising application of Voronoi diagrams from computational geometry to weighting training sequences is given.

Several different approaches, such as Barton-Sternberg, CLUSTALW, Feng-Doolittle, MSA, simulated annealing, and Gibbs sampling are applied to multiple sequence alignment methods in Chapter 6. It is very well written, with the only disappointment being that only one exercise is given in the entire chapter. Phylogenetic trees are covered in Chapter 7, with emphasis placed on tree building algorithms using parsimony. The next chapter discusses the same topic from a probabilistic perspective. This to me was the most interesting part of the book as it connects the sequence alignment algorithms with evolutionary models.

The authors switch gears starting with the next chapter on transformational grammars. It is intriguing to see how concepts used in compiler construction can be generalized to the probabilistic case and then applied to computational biology. The PROSITE database is given as an example of the application of regular grammars to sequence matching. This chapter is fascinating reading, and there are some straightforward exercises illustrating the main points.

The last chapter covers RNA structure analysis, which introduces the concept of a pseudoknot. These are not to be confused with the usual knot constructions that can be applied to the topology of DNA, but instead result from the existence of non-nested base pairs in RNA sequences. The authors discuss many other techniques used in RNA sequence analysis and take care to point out which ones are more practical from a computational point of view. Surprisingly, genetic algorithms and algorithms based on Monte Carlo sampling are not discussed in the book, but the authors do give references for the interested reader.

The best attribute of this book is that the authors take a pragmatic point of view of how mathematics can be applied to problems in computational biology. They are not dogmatic about any particular approach, but instead fit the algorithm to the problem at hand.

Brief and clear
I keep coming back to this book for its readable, applicable summaries of basic algorithms.

One chapter covers the basics of dynamic programming for string matching: a staple of bioinformatics computing. The authors come back to it a number of times as they introduce new variations on the string-matching theme. They give about the clearest description of the Needleman-Wunsch and basic variants (including Smith-Waterman) of any book I know.

The bulk of the book is devoted to Hidden Markov Models (HMMs), as one might have guessed in a book with Eddy as co-author. It covers the basics of model construction, motif finding, and various uses for decoding. Again, it covers all the basics so clearly you'll want to start coding as soon as you read it.

The later sections of the book cover phylogeny and tree building, along with the relationships to multiple alignment. Good, solid, clear writing prepares the reader for texts that may be more specialized, but possibly less transparent.

The next-to-last chapter, on RNA folding, is weaker than the ones before, in my opinion. It ties to the other chapters reasonably well in terms of algorithms, but I don't think it does justice to the thermodynamic models of RNA folding. If there is any weakness in this chapter, though, it does not detract from the strengths elsewhere.

The final chapter, the "background on probability", is the one that I think needs the most support. If you don't already understand its topics, I doubt that this will help very much. (If you do understand them, you won 't need the help.) There's nothing inherently tricky about probability, but individual distributions carry many assumptions, and I did not see those spelled out well.

This shouldn't be the only book in your bioinformatics library. If you really want algorithms, though, it's a good book to have in the collection and one you'll keep coming back to.

Good bargain, but...
not suffciently precise for being an academic textbook. The definitions are sometimes incomplete, correctness proofs are missing, some exercises are incorrect. On the positive side, it does cover important topics, and brings good examples to illustrate main concepts and algorithms (which partially compemsates for the lack of precisenss).

Simply Excellent!
This book explained topics I was interested in above my personal expectations. All the mathematics and probabilistic models were explained in detail with a practical approach. I was even able to refine some of those models for specific needs without much previous experience nor knowledge. I highly recommend this book, it is one of the best I ever read.

Don't let the title mislead you.
Don't let the title fool you. This book is a great if you'd like to understand the algorithms used in any type of sequence analysis, for example speech recognition, speech synthesis, and natural language understanding.

I used this book for a bioinformatics class. The instructor's notes were basically a rehash of the textbook. This didn't bother me as there really is no way to improve on what's already in the text. Explanations of the different ways to use HMMs made it easy to write the genefinder we did for our final programming project.

I've also written natural language processing software (for text and speech) and I've found this book to be a great reference for probabilistic language modeling algorithms. The material is similar to that found in Jurafsky and Martin, or Manning and Schutz, but the presentation in DEKM provides more insight into how the algorithms work. This should come as no surprise, as the human genome project is perhaps the most successful artificial intelligence project ever undertaken and the authors were instrumental in creating the software used by the HGP.

The book by Gusfield is also great for sequence analysis, but there the emphasis is on deterministic modeling, which has it's place if one can't make a probabilistic sequence model.

Mining databases of text, image, and sound sequences is becoming more important as more data is available on the web. Books like DEKM are valuable algorithm resources for extracting knowledge all sorts of sequence data. ... Read more

Book Description

Following in the tradition of the "System of Mineralogy" introduced by Wiley in 1837, this one-of-a-kind reference brings mineralogy into the 21st century. It describes all of the over 3700 recognized mineral species. New features include emphasis on mineral structure, presenting descriptions of all the important species. New specially commissioned structure diagrams describe all the important mineral groups. All homologous species are classified and all polymorphic forms identified. Compact and convenient in one volume, it offers exceptional coverage on where minerals can be found and accurate, up-to-date references. ... Read more

Reviews (7)

Do yourself a favor - don't buy this book
I think the Danas would be embarrassed if they lived to see their name on the cover of this book - probably the worst compendium of mineralogical data in the history of science. Here, inaccuracies and errors are the norm rather than exception, and the quality of print and paper are no match even to a circa-1900 missionary's Bible. Sloppy sources like this one do more harm than good by perpetuating errors and introducing new ones, so do yourself a favor and spend your hard-earned $350 on something else.

Long-awaited reference needs work
As a professional geologist, I use this reference often but I have found numerous errors. An example is that the mineral Pentlandite, an important ore of nickel, is not listed in the index. A German website is compiling an errata list on this book and it is many pages long of spelling, locality, formulae and indices errors. Other complaints are: The information concerning the economic use of the minerals is too sketchy and incomplete; and the page paper is too thin and fragile.

Comprehensive, essential mineral species reference
I use the book almost daily while working on a large mineral collection. It is up to date and comprehensive with valuable references to localities. The book is fragile with thin pages so must be used with care. It should be published as a CD ROM.

Is the publisher nuts?
I can't believe that John Wiley & Sons (the publisher) actually tries to sell this book as "compact". It's 1100 pages! The Peterson Field Guide to Rocks and Minerals is a much better "compact" guide. This thing should really be on CD-ROM.

Exhaustive, but FULL OF ERRORS
This book is a must-have for any mineralogist, but the number of errors is daunting. I can find a minimum of 2 significant (or major) errors per page of text. The errors include spelling of mineral names, errors in chemical formulas, errors in physical properties, errors in locality names, errors in state abbreviations for the USA, omissions in the indices, etc.

I recommend waiting for the 2nd or 3rd edition to be printed to allow some of the more major errors to be corrected. Also, the pages are of such thin paper that text from the opposite side is readable. This book should actually be sold as a subscription on CD-ROM, with planned updates to implement corrections and additions. ... Read more

Book Description

Comprises 119 chapters on plastic materials, properties, processes, and industry practices--all presented in a readily accessible and consistent format. Also features a wealth of useful auxiliary information and tables. ... Read more

Book Description

Today's project managers find themselves in the dual roles of technical expert and business leader. As project management has evolved, the need has emerged for an organizational entity to manage complexities and ensure alignment with business interests. A project management office (PMO) coordinates technical and business facets ofproject management and achieves the goals of oversight, control, and support within the project management environment. The Complete Project Management Office Handbook identifies the PMO as the essential business integrator of the people, processes, and tools that manage or influence project performance. This book details how the PMO applies professional project management practices and successfully integrates business interests with project goals, regardless of whether the scope of the PMO is limited to managing specific projects or expanded to the level of a full business unit. People at all levels of the project and business spectrum will benefit from this volume.The Handbook focuses on how to establish PMO functionality to meet the requirements of project stakeholders. It presents 20 pertinent PMO function models, providing guidance for developing PMO operating capability that is applicable to any organization. It also presents these functions relative to five stages of progressive PMO development along a competency continuum, demonstrating potential PMO growth from simple project control up through its alignment within a strategic business framework. ... Read more

Reviews (1)

good
one of the best i have seen on project management ... Read more

Reviews (1)

Excellent undergraduate introduction!
Laidler's is a superb introduction to the general field of chemical kinetics. The subject is well presented and clearly explained - the best text on the subject that I've found. ... Read more

Book Description

How to hone your analytical skills and obtain high-quality data in the era of GMP requirements
With increased regulatory pressures on the pharmaceutical industry, there is a growing need for capable analysts who can ensure appropriate scientific practices in laboratories and manufacturing sites worldwide. Based on Johnson & Johnson's acclaimed in-house training program, this practical guide provides guidance for laboratory analysts who must juggle the Food and Drug Administration's good manufacturing practices (GMP) rules with rapidly changing analytical technologies. Highly qualified industry experts walk readers step-by-step through the concepts, techniques, and tools necessary to perform analyses in an FDA-regulated environment, including clear instructions on all major analytical chemical methods-from spectroscopy to chromatography to dissolution. An ideal manual for formal training as well as an excellent self-study guide, Analytical Chemistry in a GMP Environment features:
* The drug development process in the pharmaceutical industry
* Uniform and consistent interpretation of GMP compliance issues
* A review of the role of statistics and basic topics in analytical chemistry
* An emphasis on high-performance liquid chromatographic (HPLC) methods
* Chapters on detectors and quantitative analysis as well as data systems
* Methods for ensuring that instruments meet standard operating procedures (SOP) requirements
* Extensive appendixes for unifying terms, symbols, and procedural information ... Read more

Reviews (1)

A "real" practical book
This is the book if you work in the analytical lab of pharmaceutical industry. The book covers a lot of practical and day to day problems faced by persons working in the analytical lab especially from a regulatory point of view. Different chapters have been written by area experts making it very useful and comprehensive. I strongly recommend this book. ... Read more

Book Description

On the cover of this book is a Pacific yew tree, found in the ancient forests of the Pacific Northwest. The bark of the Pacific yew tree produces Taxol, found to be a highly effective drug against ovarian and breast cancer. Taxol blocks mitosis during eukaryotic cell division. The supply of Taxol from the Pacific yew tree is vanishingly small, however. A single 100-year-old tree provides only about one dose of the drug (roughly 300 mg). For this reason, as well as the spectacular molecular architecture of Taxol, synthetic organic chemists fiercely undertook efforts to synthesize it. Five total syntheses of Taxol have thus far been reported. Now, a combination of isolation of a related metabolite from European yew needles, and synthesis of Taxol from that intermediate, supply the clinical demand. This case clearly demonstrates the importance of synthesis and the use of organic chemistry. It's just one of the many examples used in the text that will spark the interest of students and get them involved in the study of organic chemistry! ... 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

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

Virtually all serious scientists accept the truth of Darwin's theory of evolution. While the fight for its acceptance has been a long and difficult one, after a century of struggle among the cognoscenti the battle is over. Biologists are now confident that their remaining questions, such as how life on Earth began, or how the Cambrian explosion could have produced so many new species in such a short time, will be found to have Darwinian answers. They, like most of the rest of us, accept Darwin's theory to be true.

But should we? What would happen if we found something that radically challenged the now-accepted wisdom? In Darwin's Black Box, Michael Behe argues that evidence of evolution's limits has been right under our noses -- but it is so small that we have only recently been able to see it. The field of biochemistry, begun when Watson and Crick discovered the double-helical shape of DNA, has unlocked the secrets of the cell. There, biochemists have unexpectedly discovered a world of Lilliputian complexity. As Belie engagingly demonstrates, using the examples of vision, bloodclotting, cellular transport, and more, the biochemical world comprises an arsenal of chemical machines, made up of finely calibrated, interdependent parts. For Darwinian evolution to be true, there must have been a series of mutations, each of which produced its own working machine, that led to the complexity we can now see. The more complex and interdependent each machine's parts are shown to be, the harder it is to envision Darwin's gradualistic paths, Behe surveys the professional science literature and shows that it is completely silent on the subject, stymied by the elegance of the foundation of life. Could it be that there is some greater force at work?

Michael Behe is not a creationist. He believes in the scientific method, and he does not look to religious dogma for answers to these questions. But he argues persuasively that biochemical machines must have been designed -- either by God, or by some other higher intelligence. For decades science has been frustrated, trying to reconcile the astonishing discoveries of modern biochemistry to a nineteenth-century theory that cannot accommodate them. With the publication of Darwin's Black Box, it is time for scientists to allow themselves to consider exciting new possibilities, and for the rest of us to watch closely. ... Read more

Reviews (425)

The Deathknell of Evolution as We Know It
Michael Behe's revelation of the profound flaw inherent in modern day evolutionary theory is nothing short of genius. He clearly illustrates his point in a manner so simple (as you can see by some of these reviews) he has left even the coolest evolutionary theorists babbling. This book has gained much attention and it is no wonder! With crippling reasoning, Behe exposes an area completely unknown to Darwin at the time he formed his theories - the microbiological level of life (Darwin used magnifying glasses!). Using examples of highly complex systems existing on this level, Behe clearly shows that such systems could not have developed in accordance with the theory of modern evolution - by gradual change over time. Evolutionary theory is based upon the principle of progressive change to form a more complex organism. Behe takes this principle to task by illustrating systems existing on the microbiological level (sometimes no bigger than a conglomeration of several cells) composed of multiple parts and functioning in highly specified ways. There is no possible way for such systems to have evolved, one, two, three, or even ten parts at a time, because without all elements functioning together, they are completely useless, or worse yet, harmful! Evolutionists cannot explain how such highly complex systems could have evolved. Such intricate and complex systems would have had to appear all at once in time. This is nothing short of a miracle - which diehard evolutionists, sadly, cannot accept. The logic in Behe's reasoning is airtight. To understand the beginning of the end of modern day evolutionary theory -- this book is a must read.

Darwinian Evolution is a Theory
As a molecular biochemist, physician and christian I found Dr. Behe's book accurate, well-written and fair. He neither preaches to those who are unbelievers, nor forces a concept of God onto the reader. Instead, he attempts to explain where and why Darwinian Evolution fails. I've gradually come to this same conclusion prior to reading his book. (As for the issue of the number of proteins in flagella, as discussed in one review, if you were to calculate even 20 proteins mutating simultaneously, using only a very short protein chain--as the likelihood is a function of protein chain length, the probability would be well over 10^50 power, in other words: impossible. I'd refer you to various Chuck Missler audio tapes for more details.)

A couple of areas where Dr. Behe did not elaborate, and perhaps would have calmed some irrate reviewers of this and his other book if he had, is the topic of micro-evolution. A perfect example of this phenomena is antibiotic resistance in bacteria. Creationism is not incompatible with this concept (and BTW, as one reviewer incorrectly stated, Scripture does not say the world is flat, nor to drink poison; a more careful reading would be in order).

Similarly, Dr. Behe did not discuss another concept of molecular evolution that also supports intelligent design: amino acid conservation. That is, the small differences between animal species with respect to amino acid substitution in hemoglobin is not necessarily an argument for microevolution, but an argument for a designer. A designer will tend to re-use parts rather than create whole new systems (eg, modular programming).

Aside from these minor topics that would further strengthen his book, Dr. Behe offers the lay reader an excellent discussion of why intelligent design is a compelling topic and needs to be placed along side of Darwinian evolution in the classroom. His discussion is definitely not a re-hash of the arguments put forth in the Scopes Monkey Trial (as in the movie "Inherit the Wind"). His logic is not poor, as one review suggested, and Dr. Behe encourages the reader to look for topics in other books. The problem is not that these books cannot be found, again as one reviewer suggested, but that the level of discussion is those books is meager at best and usually does not fully address the stated topic. In any event, you should read his book and decide for yourself.

Scientific Knowledge Shouldn't Be Decided By Popular Vote
I can appreciate that Michael Behe's supporters might fail to grasp the effectiveness of some of the more technical refutations of this book that have been presented. But I'd expect others - like those of cell biologist Kenneth R. Miller, for instance - to be readily understandable by anyone capable of following Behe's own rather difficult arguments.

Miller has won several awards for outstanding teaching, and is co-author of well-received high school and college textbooks. He can communicate. He's also a conscientious Roman Catholic, acutely aware of the conflicts that can arise when sincere religious convictions confront the sometimes disturbing and often counter-intuitive findings of modern science.

A little sampler from Miller's writings may hopefully stir the more conscientious among Behe's sympathizers to look into what Miller and other interested scientists have to say about the book and about the intelligent design argument in general.

In March 2002, Miller and physicist Lawrence Krauss took part in a debate before the Ohio Board of Education. Their opponents were Stephen Meyer and Jonathan Wells, senior fellows (as is Behe) at the Discovery Institute. The Institute, ID's home base, is a 'think tank' advocating what it calls "the renewal of science and culture". Its primary funding comes from wealthy conservative Christians, notably Christian Reconstructionists Roberta and Howard Ahmanson.

Miller wrote a blow-by-blow account after the debate (the full text is on his website), in which he recalls Krauss' insight that "the two-on-two format of this presentation wouldn't render a fair picture of the sentiment in the scientific community. A more reasonable arrangement .. would have one member of the Discovery Institute on one side, and ten thousand scientists on the other .. two of the Discovery Institute's nine senior fellows were the ID speakers who were there; if they had not been there, the only place to find more advocates for ID would be back at the Discovery Institute. If Krauss or I had not been there, however, we could have been replaced by scores of scientists from just about any college or university anywhere in the state of Ohio."

In another article, "Answering the Biochemical Argument From Design" (also on his website), Miller gives Behe credit for recognizing that "the mere existence of structures and pathways that have not yet been given step-by-step Darwinian explanation does not make much of a case against evolution. Critics of evolution have laid down such challenges before, only to see them backfire when new scientific work provided exactly the evidence they had demanded. Behe himself once made a similar claim when he challenged evolutionists to produce transitional fossils linking the first fossil whales with their supposed land-based ancestors. Ironically, not one, not two, but three transitional species between whales and land-dwelling Eocene mammals had been discovered by the end of 1994 when his challenge was published."

Darwin's theory states that "evolution produces complex organs though a series of fully-functional intermediate stages. If each of the intermediate stages can be favored by natural selection, then so can the whole pathway." Behe argues that due to the "irreducible complexity" of biochemical systems like those described in his book, there can be no fully-functional intermediate stages; all parts must be present for any function at all. Miller asks, "Is there something different about biochemistry, a reason why Darwin's answer would not apply to the molecular systems that Behe cites?

"In a word, no.

"In 1998, Siegfried Musser and Sunney Chan described the evolutionary development of the cytochrome c oxidase protein pump, a complex, multipart molecular machine that plays a key role in energy transformation by the cell. In human cells, the pump consists of six proteins, each of which is necessary for the pump to function properly. It would seem to be a perfect example of irreducible complexity. Take one part away from the pump, and it no longer works. And yet, these authors were able to produce, in impressive detail, "an evolutionary tree constructed using the notion that respiratory complexity and efficiency progressively increased throughout the evolutionary process".

"In 1996, Enrique Meléndez-Hevia and his colleagues published, in the Journal of Molecular Evolution, a paper entitled "The puzzle of the Krebs citric acid cycle: Assembling the pieces of chemically feasible reactions, and opportunism in the design of metabolic pathways during evolution" .. this paper does exactly what Behe says cannot be done, even in principle - it presents a feasible proposal for its evolution from simpler biochemical systems .. what all of this means, of course, is that two principal claims of the intelligent design movement are disproved, namely that it is impossible to present a Darwinian explanation for the evolution of a complex biochemical system, and that no such papers appear in the scientific literature. It is possible, and such papers do exist."

Miller shows in detail that even systems Behe proposes as "irreducibly complex" are not so. "Nature presents many examples of fully-functional cilia that are missing key parts .. this leaves us with two points to consider: First, a wide variety of motile systems exist that are missing parts of this supposedly irreducibly complex structure; and second, biologists have known for years that each of the major components of the cilium, including proteins tubulin, dynein, and actin have distinct functions elsewhere in the cell that are unrelated to ciliary motion .. what this means, of course, is that a selectable function exists for each of the major parts of the cilium, and therefore that the argument [for irreducible complexity] is wrong."

Miller demonstrates similar difficulties with Behe's claim regarding the bacterial flagellum. He concludes, "At least four key elements of the eubacterial flagellum have other selectable functions in the cell that are unrelated to motility .. by demonstrating the existence of such functions, even in just a handful of components, we have invalidated the argument".

Miller's verdict: "Prof. Behe argues that anti-religious bias is the reason the scientific community resists the explanation of design for his observations:
I would suggest that the actual reason is much simpler. The scientific community has not embraced the explanation of design because it is quite clear, on the basis of the evidence, that it is wrong."

Excellent Resource
The book that basically started it all, where whispers in the scientific community against neo-Darwinism became public discourse. Whether you're an IDist or a Darwinist, this is a good book to have on the shelf just as a reference point.

A lot of people on both sides just talk pass each other, and project their image of the "other" side the way they wish to see it. When Darwinists think of Intelligent Design, they think of 7-Day Creationists who want to burn scientists at the stake. When 7-Day Creationists think of evolution, they think of that athiest Joseph Stalin shoving Christians into Gulags (and Daniel Dennet apparently thinks religious people should be in cages, so maybe that assumption isn't very far off).

Behe's book is not about the Bible, or Christianity, or Creationism, or even anti-evolution. It is anti-aimless natural selection. Behe sets up many examples w/in biology and biochemistry that show how the human cell and its processes are dependent on complex plans that could not have developed gradually. Blood coagulation requires "knowledge" of the end result in order for the process to begin. The immune system requires separate parts to evolve at the same time to meet a common goal w/in the system. There are "blueprints" w/in life that mutation and natural selection cannot explain, especially w/in the timeframe of earth's development. Does this disprove evolution? No. Does it prove the existence of God? No, not necessarily, although you'd have to provide a funky explanation involving (gasp! oh no!) metaphysics. The Power of "Life" as the Grand Unified Theory of Physics, or something. So this book does prove the need for a new explanation that is going to have to account for the borderline miraculous development of life, since life is so "irreducibly complex". Francis Crick, probably seeing the writing on the wall because of his analysis of DNA, jumped on the panspermia bandwagon early on. I always wondered why he did so, because in High School and College I was never told of the weaknesses w/in Darwinism, and here comes Crick w/ this funky idea of panspermia. Why, I thought? Crick's obviously a genius, wasn't he aware that natural selection is flawless and infallible? Now I know why. Of course, panspermia has its own problems, as it just pushes the problems of chaotic life ex nihilo back a couple of galaxies and epochs.

Behe also shows how many of the arguments against Intelligent Design are Strawmen fallacies, such as "Well, God wouldn't have done it that way!" Well, why not? That's not an observation of nature, but a metaphysical argument, and one that comes from Sartrian "bad faith". Behe takes from the bottom up, and shows how the observation of cells and cellular mechanisms leads to planning and design. The identity and characteristics of the Designer--is he perfectly Good or does he have a mean side, is he Deistic or Theistic, would he make the universe perfect from a human perspective or would he make the universe glaring w/ imperfections--is for another book and another time. Like a good Belisarius (the Byzantine commmander who ushered in the strategy of defensive warfare), Behe merely stakes out a sound corner w/in science that orthodox scientific opinion cannot explain (irreducible complexity), and he sits there, secure.

Good Argument, So-So Writing
Behe presents a solid challenge to a Darwinian view of how life started on Earth (though he leaves the question of how it could begin elsewhere unchallenged). Unfortunately to do this, he relies on several esoteric biochemical processes (though i think that is the only sort of biochemical processes available to a neophyte like myself). The first half of the book reads as several iterations of the same argument, though delivered with increasing amounts of sarcasm. The second half of the book, in which he delivers his answer to the questions raised earlier, seems rushed. So if you tire of the seemingly endless stream of enzymes and proteins, skip to the second part -- it's much easier reading for the layperson.

Though to say that this book disproves or even dismisses evolution and natural selection as viable scientific theories is disingenuous at best, and dishonest at worst. Behe even says that beyond a limited set of structures that appear to be evidence of intelligent design, there are many structures that are not clearly designed (and most likely aren't, he admits). To explain these structures and organisms, he gives a variety of options, ending with what is clearly natural selection, though he declines to name it as such. Finally, while criticising evolutionary proponents for attacking a straw man (the watchmaker for darwinists, Richard Dawkins for intelligent design-ists), this is exactly what he does -- since Darwin's followers haven't demonstrated a valid argument/scenario for the basic structures of the cell, then entire theory is invalid (including portions that have been experimentally shown true on an organism level).

Finally, Behe doesn't give any sort of explanation or theory for how some basic structures of the cell are evidence of design, but others are not. He implies that those not showing evidence of design could have evolved, but does not explain why some more complicated structures could be designed before other more basic structures evolved.

Enjoy this book and the questions it opens, but it is far from the final word on the origins and progression of life on Earth (just as Dawkins' books aren't, either). ... Read more

Book Description

A comprehensive review guide to help you refresh your study. This guide is particularly useful for midterms and final exams, condensing a semester's worth of information into one concise volume. ... Read more

Reviews (2)

Cliff's Quick Review Organic Chemistry I
Though thorough and accurate, it does not have any sample problems and solutions, which is part of why I purchased this book.

Helpful Basic Knowledge
This book is a great source of background information and will provide a great starting point for organic chemistry. I would suggest reading it prior to taking a course, or using it as reference. ... Read more

Book Description

The organization of the text treats chemistry as an experimental subject by beginning with observable, macroscopic chemistry and later moving to the quantum mechanical theory that provides the underpinning of modern chemistry. ... Read more

Reviews (3)

My advice, get a separate book to supplement
As one reviewer said, the book is trying to be simple. Some of the examples are so simple that they don't even test you're learning. And the more challenging examples seem to come out of nowhere. Also the organization is slightly convoluted and a little hard to follow with a full understanding. I recommend attaining another chem book to supplement this one if you must get this for a class. I personally found this book to be so confusing.

A book that tries to be simple and at the same time rigorous
A book that tries to be simple and at the same time rigorous. In my opinion, not succeeding to well in any of these attempts.

Very disorganized compared to other Chemistry texts.
The book was written by one of my teachers here at Georgia Tech. The book went into depth on many things, but some of their explanations were confusing to me. Their organization was very weird in the way they taught the subject. I would recommend another text to go along with it if you find this one a little confusing. ... 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

Book Description

As in previous editions, the new third edition of Organic Chemistry succeeds in providing students with an accessible framework for understanding the complex material covered in this course. Fox and Whitesell are pioneers of the mechanistic approach, and they utilize this proven and effective pedagogy to equip students with a solid foundation to retain organic chemistry principles and apply them to practical applications in other areas of science. ... Read more