Great for review, but not very much cell bio
352232
I love this book! It's so easy to read and it provides a good review for students taking molecular biology. However, I wouldn't recommend it as a resource for someone who is just starting to learn. The writing style assumes that you know the basic concepts already and sometimes skims through material quickly. However, I would have to say that this book is very readable and contains some excellent illustrations.

However, my one complaint is the lack of coverage of cell biology. This book seems, frankly, to be almost all molecular biology. It lacks any sort of discussion about actin, microtubules, and so on. I find that disappointing, but I understand that it's a "quick outline."
633295
Cell biology techniques have been continuously upgraded since the middle of this century, and future developments seem assured. In the 1990s, alone, new developments have led to improved separations capability, detection instrumentation, and new formulations of serum-free media. Any research institution with faculty and students engaged in cell biology will want to have the most current laboratory guidelines available, and this four-volume, peer-reviewed collection of protocols answers that need. The second edition has benefited from suggestions from practicing scientists, filling in gaps from the first edition.
Perhaps the greatest value of this work is its comprehensiveness. Laboratories and libraries can have detailed guidelines for cell culture, separation, staining, growth, apoptosis, preparation of component parts, assays, antibody production, genetic engineering, microscopy, electrophoresis, and more, all in one source. Need to know how to produce transgenic mice? It's here. How to grow viruses? Prepare nuclei? Stain mitochondria? Use fluorecence microscopy? All here.
Although there are 486 contributors to the 250 articles, uniform structure of articles builds continuity and thus ease of use. Most entries adhere to the five-part template (Introduction, Materials and Instrumentation, Procedures, Comments, and Pitfalls). This last section, "Pitfalls," seems especially valuable, as there is no substitute for experience. The main difference between articles tends to be the use of supportive graphs, photos, and tables, though in general (if such a diverse collection can be spoken of "in general") visuals are at a minimum.
1927196
This book does a good job about covering the basics of court testimony. However, I was hoping to find more specific suggestions to good answers while under tough cross-examination. The book does lay out all of the strategies that the defense will throw at you, but it doesn't give you enough specific and recommended strategies for your answers to those tough questions. Otherwise, it's a good read for those that just want a general overview of what takes place in a court room.
3932362
First, just to let you know what perspective I am reviewing this from, I am a college student, and this text was used in my 200-level introductory biology course. Since I am a student, and not a professor or expert of any sort, I am evaluating the book based on how helpful it was to me in learning the material. For input from biology professors, you'll have to take a look at some of the other reviews here.

"Life: The Science of Biology" has definitely been one of the better biology textbooks I've used. The text is well written, with clear explanations and plenty of real-life examples to help you tie small details into the bigger picture. But beware: The information here is incredibly in-depth, so if you're only looking for a basic overview of biology, you may actually want a slightly simpler book, otherwise you may get lost in all the details. It was perfect for my 200-level class, and gave me all the information I needed, but I don't think it would be the ideal text for an introductory biology course. One other reviewer here mentioned that she used this text to teach her AP biology students. I took AP biology in high school (and got a 5 on the exam) and can guarantee you that this text contains far, far more than you would ever need to know to get a perfect score. It's definitely a college level text.

The book has numerous detailed, well-labeled diagrams that are helpful in understanding different processes. In fact, being a rather visual, hands-on learner, I sometimes found the step-by-step diagrams easier to follow than the text itself. There are also plenty of great photographs and other helpful images. At the end of each chapter there is a bare-bones overview of key points you should know, and a self-quiz to help you evaluate your grasp of the material. At the end of the book there is an extensive glossary with definitions of key terms.

Unfortunately, there is one mistake in this book, to be found in chapter 34, "Deuterostomate Animals." On page 674, some text from the previous page is repeated, and this in turn means that part of the section entitled "Primates and the Origin of Humans" is cut off, even ending in mid-sentence. The following page is filled entirely with pictures and diagrams, no text, and then on page 676 where the text starts up again, it skips to the beginning of the next section, entirely leaving out a chunk of information. This is the only place in the book where I found such a problem.

There is a website to accompany this text ([...] I never found it necessary to use the site for my studies, but it may be helpful for some. It contains chapter summaries, animated tutorials, text-related activities, self quizzes, suggestions for further reading, and a glossary of key terms (same as the one found at the back of the book). The book is also supposed to come with a CD-ROM. My school's bookstore was selling the books and CDs separately, and I did not purchase the CD and so cannot evaluate its usefulness. I know I learned everything I needed without it, and I suspect the book and website alone would be sufficient for most students' needs.

Aside from the glitch in chapter 34, mentioned above, I have found nothing to complain about with this book. I will definitely be hanging on to it for future reference, and highly recommend it to anyone needing a detailed, comprehensive biology text. NOTE: This review refers to the 7th edition of this book.
1045873
I bought this book for the school year of 2014 to 2015 for my A&P one year long class. The book has awesome diagrams, but even my professors say that the textbook words do have some "minor problems" such as by being incorrect. For example, the textbook says in the normal text, "The binding of Ca^2+ to synaptic vesicles triggers the merging of synaptic vesicles with the synaptic knob plasma membrane" (p. 341).

However, this is untrue because calcium binds to the TETHERING PROTEINS that are attached to the vesicles. The diagrams in themselves contradict to what is written. The diagram contradicts what was written by saying, "Ca^2+ binds to proteins in synaptic vesicle membrane" (Figure 10.9 p. 341).

I read almost every single chapter in the book (not in order). The main chapters I never read in detail are the chapters covering the anatomy such as the chapter on the bones, muscles, and the flow of blood, which covers circulation in such detail it makes your head spin. I never read the lymphatic system or the last chapter on pregnancy because that was not covered in the curriculum in my college class. Chapters 8 & 9 were very detail on bones and articulations (anatomy). So basically I never that along with Chapter 11 (muscle anatomy), Chapter 20.9 and onward on Chapter 20 (this covers circulation in detail). We also never covered the lymphatic system in detail- Chapter 21 and about pregnancy- Chapter 29.

Basically, I loved this book because I learned so much. I have lots of love for the diagrams.

Chapters 1 through 4 are a review on biology and basic chemistry (polar, nonpolar, proteins). I thought it had a nice overview, but I remember it did not talk about g-protein coupled receptors in detail (I believe it did not even talk about g-proteins coupled receptors in the review chapters) enough in our class because the textbook never went in detail about the alpha, beta, and gamma subunits, which our class does need to know.

I would guess each chapter to be 20 to 40 pages including diagrams. I read very slowly and it might take me about 5 to 15 hours to read a chapter, take detailed notes for class, and memorize the information depending on how hard the chapter was for me to learn . . .
1087060
This is a good book on beekeeping, and a so-so book on bee biology. It does have some microscope photos, but they are relatively few. The only biology section of the book is a single chapter (Bee Anatomy).

If you want an introductory text for keeping, it's good. If you want to really dissect bees and know what's going on in there, I hoping we can do better than this brief treatment.
234395
This book was used for my intro hematology class. As a reference it is very detailed, however it is not a good book to learn hematology for the first time. It is highly granular and doesn't focus on concepts. Because of this, our lectures and tests were very based on rote memorization without the bigger picture of the biological concepts. The former is what students forget immediately, the latter is what students remember for much longer.
3671950
I bought this book to help review for the 2014 ABSITE which has now gone to a single format for all PGY residents (supposedly a 80/20 clinical to basic science ratio for the 300+ questions on the real test).  Overall, I recommend this book.  What this book does do well is that it highlights all of the most important aspect of the various organ systems and done in a format that can be reviewed prior to the test.  I took about 2 weeks to go through this book, total time is about 10-20 hours to go through the entire book, obviously taking more time if it is your first time using it.  Dividing each organ system chapter into a basic science and clinical section made reviewing certain topics in a full textbook much easier.

I thought the new chapters added to the end were not helpful; the real ABSITE basically tests a few medical ethics questions and these were not properly addressed by the new chapters added to the end.  There are some questions that simply are not representative of real ABSITE clinical or basic science questions such as statistic questions ("What percentage of patients have complication x or disease y")  There are a few typos, such as indicating that answer choice C is correct, but when you read the explanation, it is obvious that another answer choice (such as choice B) was the intended correct answer.
4661879
I bought this prior to starting a month long rotation in the OR (I'm a first year PA student, for context) so that I could brush up on my surgical anatomy. I don't think it's the best book to review anatomy in general due to its lack of color pictures/diagrams; I'd recommend having Netter's, Grant's, or whatever your preference is handy to supplement. However, it is a great, high yield resource to review a procedure's steps and relevant anatomy. On multiple occasions I was able to answer a surgeon's questions correctly in procedures I wasn't familiar with just from skimming through it before the case. Like other reviews have said, it's not quite a "pocket" manual unless you have giant pockets. But it is great as a quick reference if you're able to carry it around and have a place to put it while in the OR.

My only real complaints are that it isn't really "pocket size," and I was disappointed to find that it included almost no orthopedic or gynecological procedures. But it is an excellent reference for general surgery, particularly GI/hepatobiliary system procedures.
4008005
Nice update on immunology that includes more recent findings at the molecular/cellular level.  This is a more general, broad review of the field that takes you to where immunologists are focusing their efforts today. A good example is the chapter on vaccines and vaccines in development.  However, if I were someone who was needing a textbook to review medical immunology for a licensing exam, this is not the book to use.  This text is more appropriate for graduate students or others engaged in research who want a more detailed overview of the field.
4533511
This short book is a very brief summary of each chapter of Kristeva's book. The summaries are a reasonable accompaniment to the text, but a far cry from any exhaustive explanation of Kristeva's intent or context (which, I think, is very dense). While each chapter is titled "Summary and Analysis," there is little summary and no analysis. If you have a difficult time understanding a portion of the text while reading it, searching the term within this "Summary and Study Guide" will almost certainly not yield any results. I hoped this would be more comprehensive, and relate more clearly to the sections within the chapters since chapters are quite long.

The portion I do appreciate is the "Study Guide" section which, while still not the most comprehensive, does offer some theme suggestions. I wish they would summarize the theme at the end of each chapter, though. They also offer study guide questions, but no answers with which to check your work.
3163977
This book is nice for two reasons-- *First, it is a great text to use while taking a Micro/Immunology class in medical school. It always provides a basic framework for understanding each concept or organism, it is organized nicely with a lot of bolding and great tables, and it is up-to-date. *Second, it is good for board review. The tables are easy to study from and there is a 40-page section titled "brief summaries of medically relevant organisms" at the end of the book. In addition, there are 100's of review questions and a section with 10 clinical cases to test your knowledge. These features are nice because the book can be a little dense at times. *My advise--buy the book to use during class and then you will already be familiar with it for board review.
735984
This is a good concise book for beginners.  It has some good information about the clinical laboratory in biochemistry.  It is however not comprehensive and does not contain all the information for the clinical laboratory.  Please see the index of this book before you buy it.

TM
666669
Pros: easy to read, good and simple illustrations, everything you need without excess fuss (from a medical school perspective, not as a specialist)
Cons: Clinical photographs would be appreciated.  Not to be depended upon as an exhaustive resource.  Fewer funny and memorable images for those used to "Microbiology Made Ridiculously Simple".

Would recommend for second year medical education classes as well as boards review.
2263251
This is a fairly comprehensive overview of a few of the body structures included in the human body. There are at least two more volumes in this series and I'm sure each one will keep building on the last and profiling more body systems and structures. This volume outlines the skeletal system, the integumentary system and the nervous system. For each chapter, this volume goes through the anatomy or structures and also the physiology or functions of each system.
Some of the chapters really go into some depth and read just like a medical book. Other chapters seem to just barely skim the surface of what could be taught. For example, the skeletal system really just touches on a few of the bones. It goes through the bones of the skull and facial structures but that is really all. It does outline what different types of fractures are but does not list all of the bones of the body. The integumentary system and nervous system chapters go much more in depth. There are many diagrams included which really break down the different structures and which make it easier to understand the depth of each structure.
As with most medical books, the language is kind of dry. This isn't a book to just pick up looking for some fun facts about the human body. This book is more for someone who is genuinely interested in learning more in depth about body systems.
Overall, this book would probably be good for someone who is studying this subject matter.
I did receive this ebook at a discount in exchange for my honest and unbiased review
359349
I bought it based on a review in Science. And also because I am a "beginning of life" nut: I own a good chunk of Stanley Miller's personal library. There were some interesting tidbits and I did learn quite a bit. However, the writer sometimes seems to forget his target audience: some chapters are so elementary that they seem written for a middle schooler, others are so technical that only a specialist can grasp them. When you use a new term: define it! The lexicon at the end is somewhat useful but not fully adequate. Also, a couple of chapters read a bit too much like an infomercial for SELEX. I am sure it is powerful, but it can't so wonderful that no mistakes are ever made and results can be taken at face value without independent corroboration. Overall, a good intro to the RNA world, but comes up short.
2527703
This book was a good intro for a minimally conversant science reader.
It's well written, but not too critical, even of studies
that are just plain wrong/biased/flawed (after all, the writer is
a journalist rather than scientist or technical writer).
It concentrates on telling a coherent narrative of the history
of fatty acid research over the last 50-70 years.

Overall, the writing is of the level you'd find in a popular
science periodical such as Discover Magazine or the science page
of the New York Times rather than Scientific American
(which is more for the physics person that wants to read about biology
or vice versa).

Mary Enig's "Know Your Fats" is much more in depth and written
by a leading lipid biochemist.