Customer Reviews

Principles of Physical Biochemistry

5 star:		(1)
4 star:		(7)
3 star:		(1)
2 star:		(1)
1 star:		(4)

 

 

This book appears eighteen years after the famous Cantor and Schimmel three-volume "Biophysical Chemistry", and it is the first one to cover most of the topics treated there. That is why it was welcomed by biophysical chemistry teachers, although it is less then half the size of the aforementioned text.

This is not a book for the unprepared mind. To be able to follow it satisfactorily, the reader must have a firm grasp of physical chemistry together with all of the advanced math it requires. Most of today's biochemistry students do not meet these requirements (partly because the most popular introductory biochemistry texts have turned into non-quantitative - or, better, anti-quantitative - picture books), so I would expect them to have trouble with the material presented in the book, and indeed, some students have already had. In the Preface, the authors brag that they "offer one of the best treatments of NMR and X-ray diffraction available". Not so. Maybe it is most up-to date, bu students (biochemistry majors) reported having a hard time with both of the chapters, simply because they did not understand the liberally used mathematical apparatus.

Still, I am aware that many of the topics covered in the book are inherently difficult, and that the book serves well to the minority that meets all the prerequisites. As I am lucky enough to fit into this category, I found the treatment of biochemical thermodynamics and receptor-ligand interactions very good and very up to date. But, since much of the material covered here is essential to understanding biochemistry, I think that future editions of the text should be expanded in a direction that would serve those students with insufficient background. One way to do this would be to break up the most difficult chapters into two - e.g.a "concepts" and a "machinery" chapter, like in P.W.Atkins' "Physical Chemistry".

This physical biochemistry text breaks down into three major sections: Macromolecular structure and dynamics. spectroscopy, and solution behavior of macromolecules. In very simple words, this treatise is not easy to read. It is definitely NOT for beginners in the field. In fact, the materials covered in this book require knowledge of chemistry major to comprehend.

Treatment n quantum mechanics and spectroscopy in this text go as deep as perturbation theory with all the rigorus mathematics. Readers might want to study ut Atkins' Physical Chemistry before flipping to sectins on statistical thermodynamics. Sections on X-ray, NMR, and absorption spectroscopy are written very clearly but smewhat too terse. Yet the terse treatment of these topics does nt necessarily make the concepts easier to understand.

Overall this text is worth all the information. Yet readers should be cautious abut whether ther are prepared for the level of mathematics and chemistry.

I'm a graduate student in Physical Chemistry, and from my point of view Principles of Physical Biochemistry is a great book and a welcomed addition to my library! I can see how many students and reviewers can rate this book as negative without the proper preparation. As a matter of fact, most graduate students in Chemistry (organic, inorganic, analytical, materials,....) majors found this book and course to be very difficult and challenging. Let's face it, physical chemistry and all of its sub-disciplines ARE mathematical, and require extensive knowledge of physics. To comprehend and appreciate the material and scope of this book you need to be comfortable with single & multivariable calculus, differential equations (basic understanding of separation of variables; understanding how solutions to D.E.'s are applicable to the equation itself), basic linear algebra (matrix operation, inverse matrix, determinants, etc..), and vector analysis (vector integration, multiplication, etc..). It's not that the math is overwhelming or difficult, but you have to be comfortable with it in the sense that you can understand the basic structure of the equations presented. In addition, you need two semesters of undergraduate physical chemistry or physics courses that have taught statistical mechanics, classical thermodynamics, non-relativistic quantum mechanics (the Schrödinger equation, Dirac's bra and ket formalism, perturbation theory, eigenvalue problems, and so forth), physical kinetics, and some exposure to x-ray structure analysis (Bragg equation, reciprocal space, vector analysis, Fourier analysis). To those students taking a course of this nature not familiar with the physics or mathematics-this isn't the place to be learning prerequisites for the material presented. With the mentioned preparation this book becomes very accessible! It's geared more for graduate students or advanced undergraduates that are specializing in physical chemistry, chemical physics, and so forth. This is the audience that this book is geared for and I'm sure it's the audience that find this book very straight forward (well, at least I did). So, if you're in theoretical or physical chemistry, or any other of the physical sciences, this is your book. If you don't enjoy physics and its application to chemical systems stay away.

With Cantor & Schimmel close to 20 years old, it's good to have a "modernized" text for biophysical chemistry. This book uses quite a bit of complicated mathematics; however, if you know ordinary & partial differential equations along with linear algebra and complex variables, you will be fine. The author's even suggest a review of mathematics for physical chemists in their introduction. Although some sections from Cantor & Schimmel are not "updated" (eg molecular orbital symmetry and dipole operators", the book makes good on LD and CD along with a strong section on transition dipoles and dipole-dipole interactions. I would recommend it although the price $81 (at least when I purchased it) is a little steep.

If you have to take P. Chem for your degree and you're not a Chem major - pray you don't get this book. Atkins and Tinoco are far simpler and easier to read. It really seems like van Holde enjoys making his discussion as complicated as possible.

P. Chem is bad enough - this book only makes it worse.

I enjoyed the application of group theory to biochemistry presented in this book. Some of the topics could use some more details. Also, I was hoping to read a few more details concerning equilibrium and organic chemistry. Nevertheless, this book is fun to figure out.

I am a chem major at Duke University and we used this book in my biophysical chem class. The book is all around horrible. It doesn't introduce topics at all- just jumps right in and assumes an depth knowledge about chemistry, physics, biology. There are no sample problems worked out at all, and even though some answers are in the back of the text it's hard to know how they arrived at the answer without any examples to look at. The book is dense and difficult to read, and other books like Cantor and Schimmel are much more readable and helpful. This book presents all the topics, but still left me confused and not understanding the topics indepth enough.

The book offers a comprehensive review on biophysical chemistry with an emphasis on practice, although the book may not be clear for readers without good background...

If you are looking for a good physical chemistry textbook at a graduate study level, this is a good one.

This book is a short survey of modern biophysics. Indeed, some chapters in this book have very general character and very often the knowledge presented in these chapters is not deep enough. Size of this book, which was published in one volume only is its biggest limitation, because presented subject is very wide and consists of many different scientific disciplines.

Anyway this book can be regarded as a good overview of the very wide and diverse subject. I really do not understand why so many people complain here so much.

This is book about the principles of biophysics.