Product Description
Whether you're bewildered by the vast number of organisms inhabiting our planet or just crave a clear and comprehensive explanation of the endoplasmic reticulum, Instant Biology will guide you through the science that brings the very act of living (and dying) to life.

From an enlightening walk down the double helix stairway to a look at Darwin's evolutionary musings on the diversity of existence, Instant Biology lays bare the facts of life. But Boyce Rensberger goes beyond the birds and the bees to delight in the details that make science fun, like the stubborn micro-species of mite that insist on living in your eyelashes.

With Instant Biology you'll learn:

Everything you always wanted to know about sex and the single cell.
How the fuzzy pizza crust under the bed is diligently working its way to the top of the food chain.
Which is larger: the interior surface of your lungs or a badminton court.
How a species of soil and pond dwellers can dry out, shrivel up, then return from the dead.

CUSTOMER REVIEWS (Average Customer Rating: 4.0 based on 8 reviews)

Great book for parents

I bought this book so I could help my high school son learn biology. The book the school gives to the kids is poorly written, needlessly technical and vague.

Instant Biology refreshed my memory of college biology. It was fun, humorous and fascinating--a bit like an episode of NOVA.

I gave a copy of the book to my son's biology teacher. I highly recommend it.
March 10, 2006

Basically a good book

As an introductory book for the layman, Rensberger's Instant Biology does a more than adequate job. There is a less than expected emphasis on phylogenetics, which some will miss, and there is certainly an overemphasis on the controversial theory of evolution (which Resenberg strongly supports), but otherwise I found the book to be enjoyable, very engaging, and informative.
February 24, 2005

BOOK DELIVERS AS PROMISED

Rarely does a book live up to the back cover blurb or in this case the title. Rensberger crammed tons of micro facts into 200 pages. He uses metaphors like "wolf in sheep's clothing" to explain how virus trick their way into human cells. He explains that in AIDS transmission the retrovirus is given a free ticket into the DNA of the T-cell.

This book covers the essentials of biology in abbreviated fashion, showing the food webs that link all minerals, plants and animals together. Plants can store energy in the form of fat for later use or animals can digest that fat for their use-it doesn't matter-one life is like another. He tells how all life is solar powered (except for the deep sea archaea). The book takes many of the mysteries out of living cells, asserting that cell replication is but a reaction of chemical shape shifting, and explains in detail how DNA/RNA does its thing to produce proteins.

The overall picture I got from the book was of a human creature designed to shape the assembly of all the pieces that make up itself. Pick your metaphor, Boyce says, hand in glove, lock and key, wrench and nut or lego blocks-nothing would transpire in the cell, maintenance or replication, if the shape of the proteins did not fit together. Some of the facts were amazing: that all life, plant and animal uses the same genetic code in codifying its past structure. The former bacteria, mitochondrion, "is like a universal battery that fits all devices within a cell." Cellular membranes are constructed of shapes like heads and tails-one end liking water and one end hating water-similar to the tropism of plant leaves seeking sunlight. What one learns from reading this book is that our conscious self is but a driver of one's car-like body, knowing little of what is constantly occurring under the hood.
June 28, 2003

Pound for pound, one of best intro to bio books around.

For [money] you'll have a hard time finding a better intro to Biology. The illustrations are great, it goes into surprising depth in a wide variety of subjects with amazing clarity. How this book does not have 5 stars needs explanation. Look at the other reviews... see the one about evolution not being true. There you go :) .
October 08, 2002

Excellent writing

I idly picked up this book expecting it to be a member of the disgusting clan of "Thirteen dimension string theory in a week for the totally clueless." Instead it is a fascinating overview of biological science, complete with humor, history and wonderful imagery. It makes you wonder why biology is not one of the hottest conversation topics around, once you begin to appreciate the complexity of living organisms. It contains more facts than the average popular science book and is wonderfully written. While you're reading this one, check out his "Life Itself," which goes into great and fascinating detail on the cell.
March 14, 2000

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