molecular biology books

	Biochemistry and Molecular Biology
	By: William H. Elliott, Daphne C. Elliott ISBN: 0199271992 Publisher: Oxford University Press, USA Release Date: 03 February, 2005 Bioscience book rank: 723524	This is one of the most concise books I have ever seen on these subjects. Given the ambitious idea of introducing both these subjects in one text book, the authors have done an outstanding job. It is a no nonsense, clearcut book. Most of the necessary concepts are introduced to a decent depth required for appreciation of the subject. Perfect for beginners who don't want fat volumes. Great for preparing for competitive exams like the Subject GRE, especially for engineering or other non-bio students. One of my friends with no background in biology at all wanted to apply for graduate studies in a bio-related field, studied for the Subject test from this book, and cracked it. Authors has produced very clear introduction into the subject. It has somewhat conversational feeling to it as thgough you are in the class room. Authores indicate emphasis on areas that are critical to know and understand well. applications to Molecular biology is given in every opportunity. Book requires certain knowledge of Chemistry. Although most used concepts are repeated for clarification, still certain knowledge is assumed.Without good understanding of Organic Chemistry this book becames buch of diagrams with no meaning. Certainly a must read book paralel to Cell biology to understand the biochemistry going on in the cell. This book is well written. It is easy to understand and has great illustrations. I teach at the high school level and my students get along well with this book
	Operators and Promoters: The Story of Molecular Biology and Its Creators
	By: Harrison G. Echols ISBN: 0520213319 Publisher: University of California Press Release Date: 06 August, 2001 Bioscience book rank: 561843	For all the molecular biology students out there, here is the scoop. If you are working on or planning on working on some aspect of molecular biology and dont know where to start this is the book for you. If you want to become a serious investigator of biochemistry and molecular biology, and dont know what scientists in your specialized field did before you, this is the book for you. Remember, you cannot make an original contribution to science unless you know what has already been contributed! <br /> <br />The book is similar to the higly acclaimed "eigth day of creation" by H.Judson in that it nicely describes the history of what happened in the field of molecular biology in its earliest years and I bet it will be a lot of fun for someone coming into this field. Where the book differs from the other book is when it looks at events that happened much later in history - more recent events. For example, how did the discovery of ribozyme happen? The book goes into the various experiments that were performed in collaboration with other researchers working in related fields. Whats most impressive to this reviewer is that the book cites specific original research articles everytime it makes a bold statement like "this is how the discovery of ribozyme was made" which makes it very easy to get the article and put things in historical perspective (look at the extensive "Notes" section). You will also remember both the experiments that were performed to derive at the original contribution and the scientist. you can take my word, you will not forget either! <br /> <br />Last but not the least, the book has nice pencil illustrations of scientists who made the big contributions and it is essential to relate the scientists with the science. For someone that is not in science, this book will take some effort to read but is definitely not overwhelming. There is a glossary at the end of the book which I bet will be extremely helpful for the non-specialist reader. Overall this book is a gem and will be in my permanent collection. Hatch Echols was a well-known biologist. He spent years working on a personal history of his field. After his untimely death, his widow completed the manuscript. This book is the result. It is a history of molecular biology from about 1948 to about 1990. By molecular biology he means the attempt to understand biology using the tools of physics and chemistry. It is a superb book, as makes a fine compiment to the OTHER definitive history of molecular biology, Horace Freeland Judson's "Eighth Day of Creation". Judson's 1979(I think) book was a detailed account of three or four episodes in molecular biology, and stopped at 1970. Echols'book gives a much broader overview, focusing on the questions that arose and the people who answered them. The margins are graced by line drawings of the the major actors, done by the author. The result is a fine account of both the science (briefly) and those who made it. Most of the participants were his friends, and it shows. On the other hand, unlike most books, I am unaware of any animosity or basic unfairness towards any of the participants. Those of you looking for revelations of scandal had best look elsewhere. This is an idyll of discovery. Having studied the subject through textbooks, I enjoyed finding out about the twist and turns, the false starts and blind alleys and leaps in the dark that really lay behind the development of the most exciting science of the last half of the twentieth century. Highly recommended. <br />This book seems to be languishing in obscurity, and I think Judson's book is out of print. This is deplorable. Another reason to purchase it is because feel Operators and Promoters is a good book to dip into and read a few chapters here and a few there, so you will want to have a copy about the house. <br />Worth purchasing? Definitely
	Computational Molecular Biology: An Introduction
	By: Peter Clote, Rolf Backofen ISBN: 0471872520 Publisher: Wiley Release Date: 22 September, 2000 Bioscience book rank: 576479	In general I agree with the two previous reviews.<p>This book is not very good as an introduction. First read some other book such as Setubal and Meidanis, "Introduction to Computational Molecular Biology"; or Krane & Raymer, "Fundamental Concepts of Bioinformatics". These books have more readable narrative and examples.<p>The writing in this book is obtuse. It is written like an advanced abstract math book, not like an ostensibly applied science book. The notation is unnecessarily intricate. Even though it says "Introduction" in the title, there are very few tutorial examples. This is just for mathematicians/computer scientists: no biologist I have ever known would/could read this and really understand the algorithms.<p>This book does, however, have one of the more complete detailed descriptions of various algorithms used for sequence matching, etc. If you have read some other books and are looking for more details on algorithms, then this is your book. But I'm still waiting for THE ultimate Computational Biology book! The book purports to be a "self-contained introduction" to computational biology. It fails on both counts due to its excessive ambition, its opaque pedagogy, and a large number of significant typographical errors, such as entire subroutines missing from pseudocode examples. Undergraduates seeking an accessible survey are advised to look elsewhere.<p>That said, the mathematical rigor of the text makes it ideal for students who have moved beyond the need for accessible surveys and wish to improve their fundamental understanding of the field. This is an unusual book. The authors obviously have not been aquinted with biomolecular sequence analysis and fail to give state-of-the-art references to research work in this field. The same comment applies to the description of applications of Shannon communication theory to DNA and protein sequence analysis. The enormous impact of these applications in the 1970s, 1980s and 1990s is not reflected in the book and one could wonder why the authors bother to write of Shannon theory at all. In addition to the above misgivings the authors decided to confuse the reader by including a discussion of quite controversial relationship between Shannon entropy and thermodynamic entropy. Both computational and laboratory biologists will not benefit from this kind of confusion. Mathematicians and computer scientist will probably be mislead by a superficial treatment of this quite intricate topic. Physicists and chemist will probably be able to sort out useful information from over-interpretations but they may wonder why this issue is discussed in a computational biology text.<p>Despite the above critique I like the book. Organization of this text is interesting and distinctly different form other books in the field. Chapters on sequence alignment and phylogenetic trees are most interesting and original. They should probably be read in conjunction with more systematic textbooks such as Gusfield's "Algorithms on strings, trees and sequences" or Li's "Molecular evolution." Despite many misgivings (see the beginning paragraph of this review) the mathematical primer (chapter 2) is very much worth reading for its originality and compactness. Particularly sections about probability distributions and combinatorial optimization can be useful for non-mathematicians and interesting for those who are mathematically literate. However, care should be exercised (see the beginning paragraph) while reading sections about entropy and about optimality of the genetic code. Chapter 1 about principles of molecular biology is not very good for non-biologists because it is too compact. Chapter about structure prediction is also too compact to be either understandable to non-specialists or enjoyable by the experts. If the authors' ambitious approach was to be sustained, this chapter should probably be expanded to the size of entire book. Exercises at the end of every chapter of the book are interesting and worth the reader's attention. It would probably be good to have access to solutions of all exercises but it is a minor problem.<p>In summary: it is an interesting book but it should be read in conjunction with other texts. It should not be recommended to the beginners in computational biology. Mathematically seasoned readers will enjoy reading selected parts of this book. It would be nice if the publisher could consider lowering price of this book (already in paperback.)
	Unraveling DNA: Molecular Biology for the Laboratory
	By: Michael R. Winfrey, Marc A. Rott, Alan Wortman ISBN: 0132700344 Publisher: Benjamin Cummings Release Date: 01 February, 1997 Bioscience book rank: 648206	The material in the introductory text preceeding most of the exercizes lacks clarity, is poorly written and sadly confuses the reader. The introduction to the lux operon seems to be a very good example to illustrate the point. This book was made possible by a grant from the NSF and if the authors continue to market this book without revision it would be just be a travesty and an insult to intelligence. Please take note of the shortcomings of this book before decinding to buy it. One of the best lab texts around. Provides a thorough exposure to the most commonly used molecular laboratory techniques. Highly recommended for faculty, who focus on creating a hands-on learning environment. This is a wonderful text clear and concise, it explores the bulk of the basic lab techniques and procedures in molecular biology. This highly readable text builds on the cumulative experiences of some highly skilled academicians and researchers. Highly recommended for any molecular biology lab course or as a useful reference.
	Molecular Biology of Cancer (Advanced Text)
	By: F. Macdonald ISBN: 1859962475 Publisher: BIOS Scientific Publ Release Date: 12 May, 2004 Bioscience book rank: 316693
	Essential Cell Biology: An introducton to the Molecular Biology of the Cell
	By: Bruce Alberts, Martin Raff ISBN: 0815320450 Publisher: Garland Release Date: 01 July, 1997 Bioscience book rank: 377408	I was satisfied with time it took to receive the book and the book was in excellent condition. came as expected..nice, new. <br />good book for details of biology. figures and pictures sup up the chapters and major sections bought essential cell bio for school. excellent. just like in ad. thank you very much!
	The Molecular Biology of Cancer
	By: Michael Khan, Stella Pelengaris ISBN: 1405118148 Publisher: Wiley-Blackwell Release Date: 28 February, 2006 Bioscience book rank: 244074	There are any number of books on cancer from little phamplets for the new patient to heavy duty books that summarize the current research going on in specialized areas. <br /> <br />This book is aimed at the advanced undergraduate or beginning graduate student with some background in biology. It covers cancer from nearly every aspect. It begins with a general introduction to cancer and its impact from around the world. It goes on to cover the current state of research in every significant area. The writers are a who's who of cancer researchers, where each major subject area is written by a specialist in that area. <br /> <br />The editors are researchers in their own right. They jointly run the cancer research group at the University of Warwick which has produced significant findings. For a book written in this manner, this book is surprisingly well written and understandable. This is the job of a good editor and they have done it well.
	Streptococcus Pneumoniae: Molecular Biology & Mechanisms of Disease
	By: Alexander Tomasz ISBN: 0913113859 Publisher: Mary Ann Liebert Release Date: 15 June, 2000 Bioscience book rank: 850771
	Dictionary of Microbiology & Molecular Biology
	By: Paul Singleton, Diana Sainsbury ISBN: 0470035455 Publisher: Wiley Release Date: 03 November, 2006 Bioscience book rank: 461915	I have owned this book for more than 5 years. It has been my collection books for a long time. This is a great reference when I was taking all my microbiology and molecular biology classes in undergrad. This book has helped me tremendously on understanding the concept and definition of the microbio for the last 2 years of my college. I cherish this dictionary a lot,I am only trying to sell it b/c of moving, and that I am no longer in microbiology field. But from the bottom of my heart, this is definitely a great resource to look up if you need a better understanding of biology. From reading the other reviews, I was hopeful that buying this book would mean the end of me scouring the internet for definitions of biology terms. That didn't happen. While it has some great in-depth definitions, I just don't find about 40% of the words I look for! My concentration is genetics and immunology (which this dictionary should cover, on an undergrad level at least) and I've found this book to be more a source of frustration than aid. It was not a worthwhile purchase. So I'm still in the market for a good bio dictionary. This book helped me survive graduate school - especially during my written preliminary exams. It is a comprehensive source of information, and it happily contained every word I wished to look up. I would not call it simply a 'dictionary', as the explanations are very in-depth and detailed. Seriously, this is one you need in your personal collection.
	Recombinant Antibodies for Cancer Therapy: Reviews and Protocols (Methods in Molecular Biology) (Methods in Molecular Biology)
	By: Martin Welschof, Jürgen Krauss ISBN: 0896039188 Publisher: Humana Press Release Date: 15 July, 2002 Bioscience book rank: 846594