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:
Avg. Customer Rating: 4.5 / 5.0
Hate cell biology:
This book was very in depth and difficult. Bolded vocab in the chapters were not in the back of the book. It did have good illustrations. Good luck in this course.
THE book for molecular biology:
This is, by far, the most well known and most widely used textbook for molecular biology; and there is a reason it is. This text is extremely comprehensive and covers just about every topic you can think of that is related to molecular biology/cytology. Although before you try to conquer this monster I recommend a firm background in biochemistry and/or molecular biology from a smaller book, as this book is very dense with facts and information and can be hard to comprehend if you aren't somewhat familiar... more info
Great Book!:
One of the things i love about this book (which was bought as a supplement to my required text) is that fact that is uses more diagrams than renderings as opposed to other books (namely, Cells, by B. Lewin). I didn't get to really use the book as much as i had hoped because finals came around, but it really seemed to be a great text.
A Great Book:
I like to read textbooks (a bit strange, I know...)
I purchased this one about a week ago. I have read it almost every night since then. It's an incredibly detailed tour through the workings of the cell, with good illustrations and lucid explanations. Some background in chemistry and biology is assumed, but not as much as you might think - if you can pick things up quickly, you will have no problems even without a detailed knowledge of those areas. It has an overview of lab methods too, which is... more info
