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Molecular Biology of the Cell


by Bruce Alberts, Alexander Johnson, Julian Lewis, Martin Raff, Keith Roberts, Peter Walter

List Price: $142.00
Price: $98.40
You Save: $43.60 (31%)
Available: Usually ships in 24 hours
Sales Rank: 99
Studio: Garland Science
Binding: Hardcover
Number Of Pages: 1268
Publication Date: December 01, 2007
Publisher: Garland Science


EDITORIAL REVIEWS

Product Description
For nearly a quarter century Molecular Biology of the Cell has been the leading cell biology textbook. This tradition continues with the new Fifth Edition, which has been completely revised and updated to describe our current, rapidly advancing understanding of cell biology. To list but a few examples, a large amount of new material is presented on epigenetics; stem cells; RNAi; comparative genomics; the latest cancer therapies; apoptosis (now its own separate chapter); and cell cycle control and the mechanics of M phase (now integrated into one chapter). The hallmark features of Molecular Biology of the Cell have been retained, such as its consistent and comprehensive art program, clear concept headings, and succinct section summaries. Additionally, in response to extensive feedback from readers, the Fifth Edition now includes several new features. It is now more portable. Chapters 1-20 are printed and Chapters 21-25, covering multicellular systems, are provided as pdf files on the free Media DVD-ROM which accompanies the book.* And for the first time, Molecular Biology of the Cell now contains end-of-chapter questions. These problems, written by John Wilson and Tim Hunt, emphasize a quantitative approach and the art of reasoning from experiments, and -they will help students review and extend their knowledge derived from reading the textbook. The Media DVD-ROM, which is packaged with every copy of the book, contains PowerPoint® presentations with all of the figures, tables and micrographs from the text (available as JPEGs too). Also included is the Media Player, which plays over 125 movies—animations, videos, and molecular models—all with voiceover narration. A new reader-friendly feature is the integration of media codes throughout the text that link directly to relevant videos and animations. The Media DVD-ROM holds the multicellular systems chapters (21-25) of the text as well. By skillfully extracting the fundamental concepts from this enormous and ever-growing field, the authors tell the story of cell biology, and thereby create a coherent framework through which readers may approach and enjoy this subject that is so central to all of biology. * There is also a reference edition of Molecular Biology of the Cell, Fifth Edition (ISBN 978-0-8153-4111-6) that contains Chapters 1-25 entirely in printed format.


CUSTOMER REVIEWS (Average Customer Rating: 4.5 based on 62 reviews)

Best Molecular Biology textbook ever  
This is a big book dealing with molecular biology in considerable detail. It is organised in 24 chapters subdivided in small paragraphs each one dealing with a particular problem in molecular biology. The book covers the basics first and then deals with more specific matters like immunology, cancer, development, etc all seen from the molecular biologist point of view. Although the approach is purely mechanistic it uses a clear evolutionary orientation, well explained at the beginning of the book, that helps to give a dynamic framework to the whole subject. This is not a book to be read in only a few weeks but roughly a year's time, given the detail and amount of material exposed.
July 28, 2008

A Fascinating Book of Molecular Cell Biology  
I have bought all previous editions and I have to recognize that each edition is better than the old one. This is a fascinating textbook that is clearly written and the authors do an excellent job explaining things, including superb illustrations. The DVD media is not so good. Highly recommended, especially for undergraduate students. However, at later stages of your career, these textbooks are largely irrelevant, as you will search for up-to-date articles and reviews.
April 21, 2008

Media DVD  
The book is great, the media DVD not so much. appartently quicktime does not support flash anymore so some of the videos can't be seen. Garland science offers a web page where these videos can be found. nevertheless such things should be forseen when one is selling a $140 item.
April 19, 2008

Bruce Alberts THE CELL  
In my opinion, this book is the "bible" of molecular and cell biology. The two main advantages I found were the easy way of reading and a good design and pictures.
April 17, 2008

academic publishing industry in need of reform  
The publishers have made the 5th edition more "portable" by not printing the final 5 chapters of the book, but including them as electronic files on the DVD.

The unprinted chapters are:
21-Sexual Reproduction: Meiosis, Germ Cells, and Fertilization
22-Development of Multicellular Organisms
23-Specialized Tissues, Stem Cells, and Tissue Renewal
24-Pathogens, Infection, and Innate Immunity
25-The Adaptive Immune System

With the 4th edition there were 25 printed chapters and 1616 pages: $5.68/printed chapter, or ~8.8 cents/page based on my calculations using list price info. With the regular 5th edition, 20 printed chapters, 1268 pages: $7.10/printed chapter, or ~11.2 cents/page. So the cost per page for this edition has increased by over 1/4 as compared to the last edition. Admittedly, I am a geek for actually doing these calculations.

The chapters listed above are printed in the 5th reference edition (just not in this regular 5th edition), but as you might expect, the reference edition is a good bit pricier. I am giving the book 2 stars for content, because it really is a solid resource for learning molecular biology. However, with so many students carrying a heavy burden of debt by the time they graduate, it's a shame to see the continuing trend of rising prices for the best texts, making them just another contributor to the problems with education today. In this case the list price did not change between 4th and regular 5th editions, however I would argue that the "addition of portability" has decreased the value of this text.
April 08, 2008


SIMILAR PRODUCTS

Molecular Biology of the Cell, Fifth Edition: The Problems Book
by John Wilson, Tim Hunt

Biochemistry (Biochemistry (Berg))
by Jeremy M. Berg, John L. Tymoczko, Lubert Stryer

Lehninger Principles of Biochemistry
by David L. Nelson, Michael M. Cox

Introduction to Genetic Analysis
by Anthony J.F. Griffiths, Susan R. Wessler, Richard C. Lewontin, Sean B. Carroll

Lehninger Principles of Biochemistry, Fourth Edition
by David L. Nelson, Michael M. Cox

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