Release Date: 01 October, 2003
Hardcover
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From Book News, Inc.
This text for undergraduates provides a straightforward explanation of the workings of a living cell, focusing on the ways in which the molecules of the cell, especially the protein, DNA, and RNA molecules, cooperate to create a living system. The text is written to be easily understood by a reader approaching modern biology for the first time, with technical vocabulary reduced to a minimum. This second edition offers a new emphasis on genomes, with an overview of the human genome sequence and new chapters on how genes and genomes evolve and a new chapter on genetics, meiosis, and the molecular basis of heredity. There are also new sections on topics in the news, such as stem cells and cancer. Author information is not given.Copyright © 2004 Book News, Inc., Portland, OR
The Quarterly Review of Biology, Volume 79, December 2004,
"…Fills a critical niche in the pedagogical process of introducing cell biology …does an excellent job in reaching its objective."
E-Streams, October 2004
"…An excellent example of designing a textbook… ...Clear, well illustrated, conversational in tone and enjoyable to read and browse through."
Book Description
Essential Cell Biology, Second Edition contains basic, core knowledge about how cells work. It has a proven track record in providing students with a conceptual and accessible grounding in cell biology. The text and figures have been prepared to be easy-to-follow, accurate, clear and engaging for the introductory student. Each section follows logically from the previous one, telling a story, rather than being a collection of facts. Questions integrated throughout each chapter encourage the reader to pause, think about what they have read, and attempt to apply the new knowledge in ways that test their understanding. Based on user feedback, the Second Edition now offers increased coverage of genetics and more experimental background. It is completely up-to-date.
Book Info
Univ. of California, San Francisco. Textbook for advanced undergraduate and graduate students and provides a straightforward explanation of the workings of a living cell. Focuses on the way in which the molecules of a cell cooperate to create a system that feeds, moves, grows, divides, and responds to stimuli. Abundant color and halftone illustrations. Previous edition: c1998. Rating 4.5
Usefull illustrations, but it didn't help much for classAfter taking my first course in cell biology I discovered a number of things about the subject. 1) Cell Biology is a HARD CLASS! In my class, we covered about 18 or so chapters of material. Tests were based mostly on memorization of both relevant and obscure facts as well as many, many molecular processes. For someone that is pressed for time and tries to cram before tests, there will be problems. 2) It is difficult to understand many of the processes in cell biology without some chemistry background. When I took the class, I was also in organic chemistry 2, but that didn't help much. If I could have done it over again, I would actually take Biochemistry before Cell because processes in Cell Biology are explained briefly and mostly independent of the chemistry involved, which forces the student to memorize information without really understand why these processes occur. 3) In general, Biology is becoming more problem based and in order to understand cell, you need to have solve useful questions.
Based on the inherent difficulties of Cell Biology that I have mentioned, I don't think that this book did much to bridge any of these learning gaps. The molecular processes were explained briefly which was ok, but since there was so many of them, it was still hard to manage. The chemistry of cell biology in this book is poorly explained. Chemical structures are largely discarded in favor of acronyms. Obvisously, acronyms are favored for the long run, but a firm understanding of the chemical structures needs to be understand first. In my opinion, this book relied too much on acroynms.
Finally, the questions in this book were terrible. Some were just inane (Compare signs of life for a rock and a plant) while others were just pointless (Calculate something or the other). Also, there were many problems that I was just clueless to even though I had read the information in the book. These problems asked what would happen if some molecular process was somehow disturbed. Obvisouly, questions of this nature are essential in understanding cell biology, but the book did not provide enough information to come up with a feasible answer. In my opinion, this book should be much more problem based and should have fair problems that are able to be solved, and there should be a student solutions book available that provides clear explanations to all questions.
This book was decent for basic concepts, but not really useful for really understanding the subject matter. I would recommend looking for a different text, even if this is the required text for your class. Book Does Not Make the GradeI have read a good number of science texts, and this one just doesn't seem to be as good as the others. The explanations are adequate, though not to the level that Marieb's Anatomy and Physiology was or to the extent of Biology by Campbell and Reese. In class, the professor told us to refer to Campbell and to "Molecular Biology of the Cell" for better explanations.
The glossary is incomplete, and often key terms are just nt there. The index suffers from the same trouble, even when the chapters address the topic. Lastly the graphics, just don't seem to be as well planned as those in the texts mentioned above.
I understand that many do not have a choice given that most buy the book as an assigned text. My recommendation, therefore, is to save your old textbooks and to ask that your professor place a copy of Molecular Biology of the Cell on reserve at your school library.
Perfect book for undergrad cell biologyI found this book to be easy to learn from. I used this text for my cell biology class in undergrad. The energy pathways were explained with clarity. I also liked the section on gene technology. I also found The Ultimate Study Guide for Biology: Key Review Questions and Answers with Explanations (Topics: Organization of Living Things & Chemistry of Life, Structure and Function of the Cell and Energy Pathways, Reproduction and Heredity, and Genetics) Volume 1 to be an excellent additional resource for test preparation. The questions and answer format in this guide is very helpful for studying. Both books I highly recommend. |
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