Most Helpful Customer Reviews
|
|
44 of 44 people found the following review helpful:
4.0 out of 5 stars
Good survey text for someone with a year of biology, April 5, 1999
The simple fact of the matter is that, while not a classic on the level of "Molecular Biology of the Cell", this is a good introductory text. It is livened with examples of research applications, which keeps it from becoming a banal compendium of principles. On the other hand, it is relatively free from "gee whiz" fluff. It is not as quantitative as one might like, but some reviewers here have demanded a level of rigor which is inappropriate for classes full of pre-med students. A practicing structural biologist, for example, will invariably use a specialized reference for doing real work. To require too advanced a physical and chemical foundation for a book like Stryer's would be counterproductive. It provides a broad survey of biochemistry, rather than a deep discussion of particular topics therein.I used this book in a self-study ("autotutorial") course for introductory biochemistry. The overwhelming reaction from people taking the course, including myself, was that the textbook was fantastic. I find it difficult to believe that a student with a decent background in organic chemistry and biology would have any trouble with this book; it is quite readable, although the chapters could be more coherently structured. Overall, Stryer's book is more than adequate for an introductory biochemistry course, and its exposition is significantly better than most. None of the introductory texts I have encountered suffice as topical references for pursuits such as computational genetics or structural biology, so the question becomes, "is this a good biochemistry book to start with?" I submit that it is.
|
|
|
48 of 51 people found the following review helpful:
5.0 out of 5 stars
A Superb book!, October 13, 2002
This is a superb book to understand the excitement of biochemistry and to understand its relevance to human health. Stryer's book presents biochemistry in a completely different manner. Unlike traditional textbooks, it presents each chapter giving a representative molecule or system for explanation and characterization of the material in that chapter. For example, haemoglobin and myoglobin are illustrated for explaining the three dimensional structure of proteins, lysozyme and chymotrypsin for explaining enzyme action, and a host of others. Each example is critically chosen, considering its role and function in life and metabolism. This makes the matter very interesting and practical. In parallel with these examples are descriptions of diseases and biochemical disorders as well as historical perspectives. Key points are italicized and help the reader to concisely and quickly summarise the material. The last part, molecular physiology, gives a lucid exposition of the fundamental biochemical processes in living organisms. In fact, the whole point of view in the book is a physiological one and the book does an outstanding job of presenting biochemistry in the context of human health and medicine. The book also has a generous dose of drawings of proteins, molecules and nucleic acids which makes it easy to visualize the material presented. The book is unlike Lehninger, which is essentially a traditional textbook. Even though Lehninger is great as an introductory book, Stryer is, in my opinion, the book to read if you want to learn biochemistry as a discipline which should be viewed as an exciting excursion into human metabolism and life.
Review of new edition (Berg, Tymockzo):
I had written a favourable review earlier for a previous edition of Stryer. I rest my case for the latest edition too. Jeremy Berg and John Tymoczko, both accomplished authors, join Lubert Stryer in producing this time tested and comprehensive book. If you are someone like me, who believes that enzymes and proteins are the key to understanding the mysteries of life, then this book is for you. While it may not have as much coverage of nucleic acid chemistry biochemistry as some of the other books, many believe that the next revolution in biology is going to hinge upon our understanding of SYSTEMS. And while an understanding of genes is crucial as enabling knowledge, if you really consider all the actual action that happens in biochemical systems, almost all of it is mediated by enzymes and receptors. Stryer's new edition has literally hundreds of pictures and discussions of proteins and enzymes which explain the structure and function of these magnificent biological agents. The book has still retained the concise and yet comprehensive style which made its previous edition so good. Again, the book strikes a good balance between textbook and medical biochemistry, which is its great strength. Small boxes and side discussions throw light on the most interesting events connected with drug metabolism and disease. As a side point, the discussions about nucleic acid biology which the authors HAVE included are pretty good in themselves. Biochemistry is one of the most exciting branches of scientific research. This is because first of all it is highly interdisciplinary, enjoying a wonderful synergy with organic and inorganic chemistry, physical chemistry and physics, and of course, medicine. Secondly, Biochemistry is an extraordinarily dynamic subject and biochemical knowledge doubles every five years. Discoveries in biochemistry directly affect medical science. In the 21st century, it continues to promise us radical understanding into the working of life, and any good biochemistry book should ideally convey this excitement to the reader. This one does. The bottom line is, if you want to get excited about the miracle that is called life, and want to do it rationally, Stryer is still one of the very best. I hope it continues to be so.
|
|
|
53 of 58 people found the following review helpful:
3.0 out of 5 stars
Easy to read, but not so good to study from, May 3, 1998
By A Customer
This book is considered a classic in its field, and, indeed, had few serious competitors up until about eight years ago. But, with new undergraduate texts that appeared since then, the weaknesses of Stryer's text became more apparent. 1. The text is not structured well enough: its 37 chapters are divided into a number of titled topics, but it is apparent that students would find it easier to manage if each chapter were divided into 4-8 major topics,just the way it has been done in 'Student companion for Stryer's Biochemistry' by Gumport et al. 2. It seems that the book owes part of its popularity to the fact that the most difficult topics have either been left out or are covered very briefly and with serious lack of rigor. The most notorious example is incredibly poor coverage of biochemical energetics. Since most readers are life science majors or medical students with little background in thermodynamics and electrochemistry, this ought be treated in a more detailed and more serious manner. Many students find the treatment of energetic aspects of oxidative phosphorylation and photosynthesis so unclear tham majority of them find it necessargy to consult some other text to figure things out. The same goes for enzyme kinetics - it is just inexcusable for a text of this size to completely ignore discussion of bisubstrate kinetics and other common complex kinetic systems. As a conclusion, Stryer's Biochemistry 4th ed. is still readable and up-to date text. However, nowadays there are several other texts of about the same size and aiming at the same audience, but with much less things to complain about. As a TA in an undergraduate biochemistry course, I found texts by Mathews and van Holde (1996), Garrett and Grisham (1995) and Lehninger, Nelson and Cox (1993) to be more adequate for the needs of most students. My students especially praise Matthews and van Holde as a book which enables them to easily grasp even the most difficult concepts.
|
|
|
Most Recent Customer Reviews
|
by Richard I. Gumport
by Patrick J Sinko
by Jeremy M. Berg
by Robert Cipolle
