Product Description
This new and expanded edition of the bestselling textbook has now been fully revised to include techniques from across the biosciences. It focuses particularly on those techniques that have led to recent advances in molecular biology and is designed to help students understand the theory and practical principles behind those methods. The book will be essential reading for all bioscience undergraduate students and pre-clinical medical students and will complement traditional undergraduate texts in biochemistry and molecular biology.

CUSTOMER REVIEWS (Average Customer Rating: 4.0 based on 5 reviews)

Ok as an intro, but rather irksome

I had purchased this book as part of the required books for a molecular biology techniques class in college. While I did skim through most of it at that time, I hadn't given it my full attention.

Two years later, I've sat down and read the entire book (spare 2 chapters). My reason for doing this was to brush up on what I (hopefully) already knew, expand on my knowledge, and to catch some things I'd surely completely missed.

I do not like how the chapters are written by different authors. I suppose it makes sense in light of certain folks being experts in their respective fields... but isn't this book an intro book? Shouldn't the stuff in this book be "the basics"? I noticed that the style of writing (somewhat organization of thoughts, but mostly the tone/way of talking) varied. I also found more than one topic to be repeated in detail. Oh no, not just "refer to section ___ for more info"... nope... totally repeated.

I hate the organization of the book. I feel like the chapters are out of order. The chapters also, I feel, could have been focused differently to better tackle material.

Also, while a great deal of theory is helpful, I sure wished I'd seen some basic info included for actual benchwork. I wanted to see more of typical concentrations, troubleshooting, controls, etc. Because now I just look at this book and think, hmm... the info in that book I can get for free on the internet, probably faster and more detailed. I don't want to lug that thing around to work, etc. No way. Good for class though, I suppose. At least at the end of each chapter there is a recommendations section for further reading.
September 05, 2008

One of the best lab books available

I was blown away by this book. That's how good it is.

I'm a microbiology grad student working on my Ph.D. and I have referred to this book on multiple occasions. It covers almost every single type of procedure that a student would do in a life science or biochemistry laboratory. From molecular biology to PCR; from Southern blots to western blots; from electrophoresis to mass spectrometry; from cell culture to microscopy.....this book literally covers it all. Additionally, it covers all of these topics in pretty good detail. Each procedure is not only discussed in terms of how to do it, but also why it works.

Fantastic. Every life science, biochemistry, or health science student should have this as a reference book.
December 04, 2007

good with an adjunct

this is a very nice book with abundant information.there are few topics which are dealt extraordinarily especially centrifugation,HPLC,electrophoresis etcetera.i have been studying this book from my graduation.initially i used to feel some difficulty with this book,so i studied biopysical and biophysical techniques by Upadhyaya and Upadhyaya.once i got the clear idea regarding the techniques,i shifted to this book.now i feel this book is very helpful.it is highly recommended to all biology students.
April 14, 2005

Excellent reference

This book is an invaluable source of information not only for those studying about various practical techniques but even those engaged in experiments in a lab environment. Written more as an overview, it works to familiarize the reader with the principles of both experimental protocols and the equipment that might be used, for example centrifuges. It's very useful to go back to it from time to time to get a refresher on techniques that I might use on a regular basis but might not remember all the details of. Highly recommended. It's also written quite simply, which unfortunately is not the case for all biology texts.
May 09, 2003

A useful, informative guide to practical biology

This book would be especially useful to science students engaging in a predominantly practical-based biological course.
January 04, 1998

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