Essential Developmental Biology [Paperback]

Jonathan M. W. Slack (Author)

Book Description

ISBN-10: 1405122161 | ISBN-13: 978-1405122160 | Publication Date: October 17, 2005 | Edition: 2

TO ACCESS THE DEDICATED TEXTBOOK WEBSITE, PLEASE VISIT www.blackwellpublishing.com/slack

Essential Developmental Biology, 2nd Edition, is a concise and well-illustrated treatment of this subject for undergraduates. With an emphasis throughout on the evidence underpinning the main conclusions, this book is suitable as the key text for both introductory and more advanced courses in developmental biology.

• Includes new chapters on Evolution & Development, Gut Development, & Growth and Aging.
  
• Contains expanded treatment of mammalian fertilization, the heart and stem cells.
  
• Now features a glossary, notated further reading, and key discovery boxes.
  
• Illustrated with over 250 detailed, full-color drawings.
  
• Accompanied by a dedicated website, featuring animated developmental processes, a photo gallery of selected model organisms, and all art in PowerPoint and jpeg formats (also available to instructors on CD-ROM).

An Instructor manual CD-ROM for this title is available. Please contact our Higher Education team at [e-mail] for more information.

Editorial Reviews

Review

"The second edition is a must have for anyone interested in development biology. New findings in hot fields such as stem cells, regeneration, and aging should make it attractive to a wide readership. Overall, the book is concise, well structured, and illustrated. I can highly recommend it." Peter Gruss, Max Planck Society "I have always found Jonathan Slack's writing thoughtful, provocative, and engaging, and simply fun to read. This effort is no exception. Every student of developmental biology should experience his holistic yet analytical view of the subject." Margaret Saha, College of William & Mary "The molecular and cellular processes that lead to the formation of an embryo are just beginning to be unraveled. This second edition of Essential Developmental Biology does the best job I have seen yet to present early on to the student some of the key unifying principles in early animal development. The writing style is exquisite, and the morphological and conceptual complexities involved in the formation of an animal are described in an extremely lucid fashion which will help students acquire a deep understanding of developmental processes." James Deshler, Boston University

Review

"The second edition is a must have for anyone interested in development biology. New findings in hot fields such as stem cells, regeneration, and aging should make it attractive to a wide readership. Overall, the book is concise, well structured, and illustrated. I can highly recommend it."
—Peter Gruss, Max Planck Society

"I have always found Jonathan Slack's writing thoughtful, provocative, and engaging, and simply fun to read. This effort is no exception. Every student of developmental biology should experience his holistic yet analytical view of the subject."
—Margaret Saha, College of William & Mary

"The molecular and cellular processes that lead to the formation of an embryo are just beginning to be unraveled. This second edition of Essential Developmental Biology does the best job I have seen yet to present early on to the student some of the key unifying principles in early animal development. The writing style is exquisite, and the morphological and conceptual complexities involved in the formation of an animal are described in an extremely lucid fashion which will help students acquire a deep understanding of developmental processes."
—James Deshler, Boston University

See all Editorial Reviews

Product Details

• Paperback: 376 pages
• Publisher: Wiley-Blackwell; 2 edition (October 17, 2005)
• Language: English
• ISBN-10: 1405122161
• ISBN-13: 978-1405122160
• Product Dimensions: 10.8 x 8.5 x 0.8 inches
• Shipping Weight: 2.4 pounds (View shipping rates and policies)
• Average Customer Review: 3.7 out of 5 stars  See all reviews (3 customer reviews)
• Amazon Best Sellers Rank: #184,657 in Books (See Top 100 in Books)
  • #54 in Books > Professional & Technical > Professional Science > Biological Sciences > Biology > Developmental Biology

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Customer Reviews

Most Helpful Customer Reviews

4 of 4 people found the following review helpful:

2.0 out of 5 stars Essential? Maybe, but not an introduction to Developmental Biology., August 7, 2008

By 

FBW (Argos, Greece) - See all my reviews

This review is from: Essential Developmental Biology (Paperback)

Are you studying and working in the area of developmental biology of animals? Then maybe this book is ok for you. Are you an undergraduate student in a Biology department that just wants to be introduced to the essentials of Developmental Biology? Then this book maybe is not for you!

I've got this book in order to be introduced in what we describe as developmental biology. My previous knowledge was mostly (but not least) on the areas of Cellular Biology, Molecular Biology, Biochemistry, Genetics, Microbiology, Chemistry, Botany, Human Physiology and other scientific areas that an undergraduate student is being exposed to. There was a subject about Essentials of Developmental Biology in my Biology Department. BUT: This book was so hard to give me an introductive knowledge on the subject.
1.There's not a reasonable flux in what you read. (You start reading the first chapters, don't understand many things and you finally find out something about them in the final chapters.)
2.The pictures are very few. (You read the text, wondering how all these things that are described on the text would look like but there not a pic for lots of them! The only help is your imagination.)
3.TOTAL lack of 3d-pictures. (I think it's impossible to discuss about cells that start from a zygote and finishing into an organism without having 3d-pictures! All the pictures are totally flat.)

In an nutshell. Maybe this book is not intented to be an introduction to Developmental Biology. Maybe it's a good book for somebody that has already knoweledge on this particular subject. But I think that it's not suited for an undergraduate Biology student that wants to be introduced to the subject.

0 of 1 people found the following review helpful:

4.0 out of 5 stars developmental bio textbook, January 31, 2011

By 

ucsc11 - See all my reviews

Amazon Verified Purchase

This review is from: Essential Developmental Biology (Paperback)

excellent quality, however shipping was kind of a bummer since there was no tracking information and i couldn't speed up the process. it gave me a three week period of when it should arrive, and it arrived in the last week.

2 of 5 people found the following review helpful:

5.0 out of 5 stars BIOLOGICAL EYE!!, May 18, 2006

By 

John R. Vacca "Tech Write Independent Reviewer" (Pomeroy, Ohio) - See all my reviews
(REAL NAME)   

This review is from: Essential Developmental Biology (Paperback)

Are you studying and working in the area of developmental biology of animals? If you are, this book is for you! Author J. M. W. Slack, has written an outstanding 2nd edition of a book about basic ideas and facts of modern developmental biology of animals.

Slack, begins with an overview of modern biological research and how the mechanisms of development are very simple for animals, including humans. Then, he explains how the structure of organisms changes over time. The author continues by discussing how all of the genes in the genome have functions that are specifically concerned with development. In addition, he also discusses why it was the experimental embryologists who gave most thought to mechanism. The author also considers a further set of techniques that are derived from cell and molecular biology, but that have particular relevance to the study of development. Then, the author focuses on a very small number of animal species which are often described as model organisms. Next, he explores the experimental production of Xenopus. Then, the author focuses on the zebrafish-specific features rather than repeating the description of the common features. Next, he reviews the visible course development of the chick, and how it is superficially very different from the lower vertebrates and is much closer to the mammalian type. The author continues by describing how the developmental biology of the mouse has depended to a much greater extent on genetic manipulation. He also discusses why the first organism whose development was understood in molecular detail was the fruit fly Drosophila melanogaster. In addition, he also discusses Caenorhabditis elegans, which is a small, free-living soil nematode and has been used for developmental biology research since the 1960s. Next, he deals with the chief tissue types found in the vertebrate body with special attention to their cellular renewal. Then, the author explores the enormous overall complexity of the vertebrate nervous system. Next, he discusses why the invertebrate mesoderm does not show the same regional subdivision as vertebrate mesoderm. The author continues by describing how the endoderm is the innermost of the three germ layers formed during gastrulation. He also discusses the metamorphosis of Drosophila imaginal discs. In addition, he explores the overall growth, aging and the development of cancer in cells. Next, the author discusses the ability to regrow missing body parts. Finally, the author discusses the interface between developmental biology and evolutionary biology.

Special attention has been given to keeping this most excellent book compact and concise. New findings in the evolving fields of stem cells, regeneration, and aging should make this book attractive to a wide range of readership.