Review
“…buy soon and read fast!…” (Spixiana, July 2004) "...will be of enormous practical assistance to anyone getting to grips with bioinformatics tools in the course of their research..." (Briefings in Bioinformatics, June 2003)
Review
“…buy soon and read fast!…” (Spixiana, July 2004) "...will be of enormous practical assistance to anyone getting to grips with bioinformatics tools in the course of their research..." (Briefings in Bioinformatics, June 2003)
Book Description
Bioinformatics – the process of searching biological databases, comparing sequences, examining protein structures, and researching biological questions with a computer – is one of the marvels of modern technology that can save you months of lab work. And the most amazing part is that, if you know how, you can use highly sophisticated programs over the Internet without paying a dime and sometimes, without installing anything new on your own computer. All you need to know is how to use these technological miracles. That's where Bioinformatics For Dummies comes in. If you want to know what bioinformatics is all about and how to use it without wading through pages of computer gibberish or taking a course full of theory, this book has the answers in plain English. You'll find out how to - Use Internet resources
- Understand bioinformatics jargon
- Research biological databases
- Locate the sequences you need
- Perform specific tasks, step by step
Written by two experts who helped develop the science, Bioinformatics For Dummies is all about getting things done. If you're just getting your feet wet, start at the beginning with a quick review of those necessary parts of microbiology and an overview of the tools available. If you already know what you want to do, you can go directly to a chapter that shows you how. Get the lowdown on - Researching and analyzing DNA and protein sequences
- Gathering information from all published sources
- Searching databases for similar sequences and acquiring information about gene functions through sequence comparisons
- Producing and editing multiple sequence comparisons for presentation
- Predicting protein structures and RNA structures
- Doing phylogenetic analysis
With an Internet connection and Bioinformatics For Dummies, you'll discover how to peruse databases that contain virtually everything known about human biology. It's like having access to the world's largest lab, right from your desk. This book is your lab assistant – one that never takes a day off, never argues when you ask it for help, and won't demand a benefits package.
Book Info
A practical introduction to bioinformatics and computer technologies that biochemical and pharmaceutical researchers use to analyze genetic and biological data. Guides readers to the most helpful Web resources and freely available tools. Softcover.
From the Back Cover
"A painless and thorough introduction to the field."
—Jim Kent, Research Scientist, UC Santa Cruz Related Web site helps you find the best tools Get an overview, choose the right databases, or analyze sequences like a pro Whether you’re baffled by bioinformatics or just weary of wandering the Web, you’ve come to the right place. This friendly volume is like chatting with the experts. You’ll get bioinformatics basics plus a cookbook of cool ideas, tips on tools, directions to the best Web sites, and shortcuts to great results – all in plain English! Praise for Bioinformatics For Dummies "The authors cover practical and theoretical aspects of a wide range of bioinformatics tools with remarkable clarity and humor. This book is a painless and thorough introduction to the field."
– Jim Kent, Author of GigAssembler, used in the Human Genome Project
About the Author
Jean-Michel Claverie, PhD, is one of the founders of modern bioinformatics and has written over 100 articles. Cedric Notredame, PhD, is a researcher at France's Centre National de la Recherche Scientifique (CNRS) and a group leader of the Swiss Bioinformatics Institute. Rating 4.5
disappointing from the viewpoint of a computer scientist...I hold a masters degree in computer sciences (so in fact I am a biology dummy), but always had a strong interest for sciences. So I want to delve deeply into this fascinating area, but first wanted to read a book to quickly introduce me the basic concepts. With this background, I must say the book is a little bit disappointing. You can clearly see that this book is written with the biologist in mind, definitely not the computer scientist.
The biological concepts are not explained very well for a biology dummy, let me explain you why :
1. Some basic biological concepts are not explained. I wanted to have some more explanation on the basic concepts of how molecular and cell biology works. A lot of times, the autors tell you how to use some tool, but is not always clearly explained to me why, for what purpose they use the tool. For instance they explain how to find a list of related protein sequences, but for me it is not clear why biologists need to have such a list. And this is only one example, I could give much more simular examples...
2. Remember guys, I am a dummy, so please explain me the difference between a gene and a genome before using these terms. And also, I heard about chromosomes, but why do you not explain what is it exactly ?. Also, there are a lot of explanations on how to work with RNA, but please explain me more about the functional difference between RNA and DNA.
3. The explanations on how to use serveral internet tools are too wordy, they spent several pages explaining things that are so intuitively clear like "click this or that button", "use menu file, edit, copy to past your stuff to the computer clipboard"....
4. A lot of complex terms are or not explained the first time they use it ("phylogenic"). Sometimes these terms are explained further in the book, but from a didactical standpoint, you should at least give an informal definition when you first use some concepts...
Conclusion: I currently read the first hundred pages of the book and maybe I will change this review later on. But I can already tell : the first chapters might be well suited for a computer dummy, but definitely not for a biology dummy. However with some help of the internet(for instance there is an excellent explanation on how cells work at the howstuffworks website http://science.howstuffworks.com/cell.htm), I will continue to read the book further. Maybe after that I will need to change my preview...
Bioinformatics for Dummies by J.M. Claverie & C. Notredame"Bioinformatics for Dummies" is an excellent resource. It is clear, easy to read, well organized and illustrated. I was particularly pleased by the colloquial tone of the writing: in addition to being informative, it was fun to read!As a scientist who spends at least half of my time BLASTing, I also read it for accuracy and found it to almost error-free (any errors were in the figures). Additionally, most of the web pages were up-to-date, although as time passes the links will decay and web pages will change their look. In addition, the book contained enough in-depth content to teach me several new tricks of the trade. Further, I believe the book had sufficient background material to educate the novice. To test this, I gave the manual to a material science chemist and he was able to understand the material, at least until he decided it was more than he wanted to know and quit reading. This is a useful text for those who want to know more than an operational definition of bioinformatics and a must for the library of all bioinformatics users. Walking amongst DummysI'm glad I bought this book and I will continue to refer to it. The remit of the Dummies series is to provide a guide to its subject matter without any great fuss. The text focuses on practical techniques without unnecessary diversion into the detail of molecular biology or computer science. In this respect it would have been a difficult book to author, readers having come from one discipline or the other. I agree with previous reviewers that this is well worth reading before doing a bioinformatics course or degree. Bioinformatics is a new field, and this book has delivered a useful introduction to it without recourse to expensive textbooks full of unreadable filler. |
