Customer Reviews

Medical Cell Biology

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The authors of this text say that their aim was to provide, in an affordable text of 300 pages, all the information a medical student needs about cellular biology. They've done a fair job of it, but I think they're confused about where in the curriculum it belongs.

The text actually runs to a bit over 300 pages. It is divided into only 9 chapters; and each chapter contains a variable number of sections. Unfortunately, the chapters are uneven in terms of quality and quantity of content. Cell signaling, for instance, is given fairly short shrift, while the mechanics of transcription, translation, and protein assembly go on forever. In addition, the authors don't seem to have a solid idea of the background of their hypothetical medical student audience: they assume the reader knows the difference between the 3' and 5' ends of polymerized nucleic acids, but isn't already familiar with the citric acid cycle. This is a bit reflective, I suppose, of the wide variance in science preparation among medical students, where on the one hand you have biochemistry majors, and on the other journalism graduates with a bare minimum of science.

Another problem concerns the enclosed disk, which does not contain all the necessary files for installation (the missing ones must be downloaded from the publisher's website). Unlike the electronic component of many basic science texts, this disk, once installed, contains only drill-and-practice mock National Board questions, without any electronic enhancement of content.

All things concerned, an A for effort, but a C- for outcome.

I own this book. It's a waste of money since it's really an "introduction" to cell biology. All the data contained are superficial and aberrant from medical course.