Customer Reviews

Molecular Biology of the Cell 3E

5 star:		(36)
4 star:		(5)
3 star:		(3)
2 star:		(2)
1 star:		(1)

 

 

In graduate school for Neuroscience I had to take a class on molecular biology and biochemistry which was required of all med students whether Ph.D. or M.D. or both. We had five different teachers in the class, three of whom were foreign. Since I was the first Deaf person to take Neuroscience there, they weren't prepared for me...and I ended up taking the class without interpreters! I had to lipread the teachers. If it hadn't been for this particular textbook, I would never had made it through! I am not kidding anyone by saying this. YOu can take a class with just this textbook for information and still pass with flying colors. That is how well this text is written. For once, the book was written with the student in mind, not the peers of the authors. It was written to teach the same information that the authors had in such a way as to make it understandable. Not only did I use this text in this class but in most of my classes at med school. When I started working on HIV encephalitis in my chosen lab for two years, I was not surprised to find this book on the shelves...and we all referred to it constantly. I applaud the authors for a job well done, and if I ever write a textbook, this will be the one I use to follow as an appropriate way to write curriculum. The amount of pictures and graphs were especially great for teaching Deaf students and I intend to use it for such. Karen Sadler, Science Education, University of Pittsburgh

This text covers every important aspect in the field, from experimental techniques and basic concepts to reviews of immunology, cancer, and developmental biology. I used it as a reference in four different undergraduate classes, and have prepared for several job interviews by reviewing the relevant information in this book. The illustrations are all relevant, the organization is excellent, and the prose is so well written that I take the book off the shelf and read it for fun. A new edition would be useful - some of the more speculative information is outdated - but this is still the best textbook I own.

Well, considering that this book got me through a full year of molecular and cell biology as an undergraduate, I'm pretty fond of the book. Especially considering that the second half of the year was taught by two people who had never taught a class in their lives before. Reason for the five stars is that this is an INTRODUCTORY level textbook written about 7 years ago. Even considering that, it's thorough enough and comprehensive enough for an entire year. I wasn't expecting work done last year to be included and I wasn't expecting that it would delve into the intricate details of photosynthetic reaction centers or the latest in optical methods in single molecule dynamics. If you want that kind of detail, go to the journals or specialized texts. However, for those undergraduates undertaking a full year of MCB, I can't recommend this text highly enough. And if you're looking for prokaryotic information, I'd go pick up a copy of Prescott, Harley, and Klein's "Microbiology."

There is so much praise in the other reviews, what else should one say about this book ? Before holding the book in my hands, I wondered why so many reviewers mention the pictures in this book. Now I know why. The authors use different kinds of pictures to make clear what is where in a cell and how parts cooperate: 1. simple line drawings and chemical structures 2. coloured schemes for complex structures 3. images from Electron Microscopes or Micrographs. The images are (technically, sharpness, details, contrast) of very good quality. I have never seen better ones, but this may be my fault.

I could go on in praising this extraordinarily good text book like the other reviewers, but instead I will try to play Advocatus Diaboli. So, what could one say against this book ? 1. It is expensive 2. It is heavy, you will never take it to class room 3. Laboratory techniques are not described, you have to buy the companion "Problems Book" for techniques and experiments 4. This book is mostly about eucaryotic cells, this means there is very few information about bacteria in it. 5. The chapters are structured according to processes in the cell, if your approach is a different one, you need the index to find the places in the book.

I bought this book because I wanted information about bacteria, so I am a bit disappointed by the book because of its focus on eucaryotic cells. But this book still is the best book about microbiology in general that I have (although microbiology in general is not its focus).

This beautiful textbook does not talk down to its readers. Many of the subjects discussed are difficult, but the authors do an outstanding job of explaining things clearly, and the illustrations are superb. The authors cover an amazing amount of material (the book is a little uneven - the parts on replication, translation, transcription, and development are all top-notch, while the chapters on signalling and the cytoskeleton range from decent to poorly written and confusing at times), and the book really does inspire the reader to learn more about the field. This work makes Baltimore et al's book look cartoonish by comparison. Excellent.

We used it as a textbook for our cell bioloogy course at the Copenhagen Medical School, and I guess we all loved it! This is a book that tells an important story, and takes the necessary time and space to do just that.

This book is the bible of cell biology. I continually find it to be well written, very thorough and extremely well illustrated. I am a PhD student in physiology and would consider this book to be one of the most indispensible books in my library. In fact, this is one of the few books I will pull off the shelf, open to some random page and just read.

I am studying mathematics and computer science, but love biology very much. In Russia I bought Russian translation of the 2nd ed of this book. It was in three volumes. It was so beautiful to read that I couldn't stop even when I had to prepare for the (math) exams. The book provides the Big Picture of the subject, is scientifically deep and up-to-date, and is easily understandable for a (educated) non-specialist. It has plenty of extraordinary illustrations. The authors, editors and translators, thank you all very much!

I have use this book for both undergraduate and graduate classes. Simply the best text I have ever owned!

The content in this book is well up to date, and almost all the fundumental knoledge about biology, not only molucular biology, are available. The diagrams shown here are very comprehensible and clear. This book helps all the people who is majoring biology-oriented fields, from beginneres to experts! Buy one!