Essential Cell Biology, Second Edition [Hardcover]

Bruce Alberts (Author), Dennis Bray (Author), Karen Hopkin (Author), Alexander Johnson (Author), Julian Lewis (Author), Martin Raff (Author), Keith Roberts (Author), Peter Walter (Author)

Book Description

ISBN-10: 081533480X | ISBN-13: 978-0815334804 | Publication Date: September 25, 2003 | Edition: 2

Essential Cell Biology, Second Edition contains basic, core knowledge about how cells work. It has a proven track record in providing students with a conceptual and accessible grounding in cell biology. The text and figures have been prepared to be easy-to-follow, accurate, clear and engaging for the introductory student. Each section follows logically from the previous one, telling a story, rather than being a collection of facts. Questions integrated throughout each chapter encourage the reader to pause, think about what they have read, and attempt to apply the new knowledge in ways that test their understanding. Based on user feedback, the Second Edition now offers increased coverage of genetics and more experimental background. It is completely up-to-date.

Editorial Reviews

Review

...an excellent example of designing a textbook for undergraduates and non-biology majors. It is clear, well illustrated, conversational in tone and enjoyable to read and browse through...
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–E-Streams, October 2004

The second edition retains all the beauty of the first, and it serves as an editorial model -- a guide that shows us how serious authors prepare a new version of a serious book. ...What makes for a great science education is not the amassing of facts but the understanding of concepts, processes and syntheses, and the realization that all our information about nature must be subject to testing and revision. That is the kind of educational experience that students can acquire from the second edition of Essential Cell Biology.

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–The Textbook Letter, Volume 12, Number 2, 2005

Product Details

• Hardcover: 740 pages
• Publisher: Garland Science/Taylor & Francis Group; 2 edition (September 25, 2003)
• Language: English
• ISBN-10: 081533480X
• ISBN-13: 978-0815334804
• Product Dimensions: 11.1 x 8.5 x 1.4 inches
• Shipping Weight: 4.4 pounds (View shipping rates and policies)
• Average Customer Review: 4.3 out of 5 stars  See all reviews (35 customer reviews)
• Amazon Best Sellers Rank: #31,850 in Books (See Top 100 in Books)
  • #20 in Books > Medical Books > Basic Sciences > Cell Biology
  • #28 in Books > Professional & Technical > Professional Science > Biological Sciences > Biology > Molecular Biology
  • #62 in Books > Medical Books > Basic Sciences > Microbiology

Customer Reviews

Most Helpful Customer Reviews

25 of 29 people found the following review helpful:

3.0 out of 5 stars Book Does Not Make the Grade, December 26, 2004

By 

HumDrummer "humdrummer" (Pittsburgh, PA United States) - See all my reviews

This review is from: Essential Cell Biology, Second Edition (Hardcover)

I have read a good number of science texts, and this one just doesn't seem to be as good as the others. The explanations are adequate, though not to the level that Marieb's Anatomy and Physiology was or to the extent of Biology by Campbell and Reese. In class, the professor told us to refer to Campbell and to "Molecular Biology of the Cell" for better explanations.

The glossary is incomplete, and often key terms are just nt there. The index suffers from the same trouble, even when the chapters address the topic. Lastly the graphics, just don't seem to be as well planned as those in the texts mentioned above.

I understand that many do not have a choice given that most buy the book as an assigned text. My recommendation, therefore, is to save your old textbooks and to ask that your professor place a copy of Molecular Biology of the Cell on reserve at your school library.

10 of 10 people found the following review helpful:

5.0 out of 5 stars Essentials grounded!!, October 11, 2005

By 

Somali Chaterji (Chicago, IL USA) - See all my reviews
(REAL NAME)   

This review is from: Essential Cell Biology, Second Edition (Hardcover)

I feel this is a very good textbook for molecular biology rookies as well as for pros wanting to revive their concepts ... Molecular Biology of the Cell could serve as an excellent companion book or rather reference book for this textbook ... the cd provided along with the Essential Cell Biology book is a great tool to understand the way things work ... in short, it is a must book for mol bio students to know what they are doing and to do things better:) It could also serve as a great book for biomedical engineers to grasp more of biology and engineer the concepts better. The book is definitely more simplified (kinda an abridged version) and easier to understand than "Molecular Biology of the Cell". Although, the size of the latter makes it look more formidable for beginners, I must add it is indeed a great reference book for researchers!

26 of 32 people found the following review helpful:

3.0 out of 5 stars Usefull illustrations, but it didn't help much for class, December 27, 2004

By 

Matthew Bratkowski "mattster" (Ithaca, NY USA) - See all my reviews

This review is from: Essential Cell Biology, Second Edition (Hardcover)

After taking my first course in cell biology I discovered a number of things about the subject. 1) Cell Biology is a HARD CLASS! In my class, we covered about 18 or so chapters of material. Tests were based mostly on memorization of both relevant and obscure facts as well as many, many molecular processes. For someone that is pressed for time and tries to cram before tests, there will be problems. 2) It is difficult to understand many of the processes in cell biology without some chemistry background. When I took the class, I was also in organic chemistry 2, but that didn't help much. If I could have done it over again, I would actually take Biochemistry before Cell because processes in Cell Biology are explained briefly and mostly independent of the chemistry involved, which forces the student to memorize information without really understand why these processes occur. 3) In general, Biology is becoming more problem based and in order to understand cell, you need to have solve useful questions.

Based on the inherent difficulties of Cell Biology that I have mentioned, I don't think that this book did much to bridge any of these learning gaps. The molecular processes were explained briefly which was ok, but since there was so many of them, it was still hard to manage. The chemistry of cell biology in this book is poorly explained. Chemical structures are largely discarded in favor of acronyms. Obvisously, acronyms are favored for the long run, but a firm understanding of the chemical structures needs to be understand first. In my opinion, this book relied too much on acroynms.

Finally, the questions in this book were terrible. Some were just inane (Compare signs of life for a rock and a plant) while others were just pointless (Calculate something or the other). Also, there were many problems that I was just clueless to even though I had read the information in the book. These problems asked what would happen if some molecular process was somehow disturbed. Obvisouly, questions of this nature are essential in understanding cell biology, but the book did not provide enough information to come up with a feasible answer. In my opinion, this book should be much more problem based and should have fair problems that are able to be solved, and there should be a student solutions book available that provides clear explanations to all questions.

This book was decent for basic concepts, but not really useful for really understanding the subject matter. I would recommend looking for a different text, even if this is the required text for your class.