[.ca] Brock Biology of Microorganisms and Student Companion ... (ISBN 0132192268)

it covers everything:
If anyone has the cash to buy this book, buy it. It doesnt matter if you are a microbiologist, zoologist, violin player, construction worker, or a bum on the street. Ive never read a book that actually allows for reading of multiple pages without complete boredom before this book. If anyone ever has the chance to have Dr. Mike Madigan, Dr. John Martinko, or Dr. Jack Parker for an instructor, congradulations, becuase you have changed your life forever. All of these guys know what they are talking about, and are totally willing to help students in any way possible. THANKS GUYS!! Looking forward to the 10th ed. ...

This book is just awesome plain awesome. Excellent !:
This great textbook from Michael T. Madigan and his collegues is an excellent microbiology textbook. It has great and colorful illustrations that explain the concepts such as DNA transcription, RNA synthesis, various biological tests, viruses(especially the operation of HIV virus. He did an EXCELLENT JOB on that topic), and other topics. Besides the microbiology aspects this book excellently illustrates it also gives you an EXCELLENT biochemistry aspect of prokaryotes and eukaryotes, viruses and other microorganisms as well. It is EXTREMELY well written to the point that ANYONE can understand clearly what Michael T. Madigan and his colleges are trying to explain. Heck, it even has a little bit of genetics as well. I mean lets be serious here. What more do you want? He gives everything in a high-quality manner! Overall this is a great book with great color illustrations, review questions, and is VERY CLEAR in its explanations of the concepts of microbiology, biochemistry and genetics. This is a great referance manual as well. I'm in pharmacy school and I still use this book as a handy referance to perk up any forgotten concepts in biochemistry, microbiology or genetics. Anybody who criticizes this book don't know jack-squat of what a high quality textbook this is. I'm very happy that my microbiology professor at University of Missouri-St. Louis(my former school) chose this book as our class textbook. I usually sell my school textbooks back but I'm not selling this one back due to its high quality. This book is too good. Bottom line this book has everything you want. This is a top-notch book that will make learning microbiolgy fun, fun and more fun. I take my hats off to Michael T. Madigan and his collegues for working hard in writing such an excellent textbook. I hope the publishers keep publishing this book for the next 100 years.

An exceptional microbiological resource:
If you are an aspiring microbiologist or simply a student or teacher of science in general wishing to have a well-rounded, solid microbial background, then this is an absolutely essential resource. It is an unsurpassed publication in the vast field of fundamental microbiology. It is designed for the upper-level undergraduate student and thus takes a holistic and all-encompassing approach to the field. However, I have no doubt that even seasoned instructors and professionals alike will gleen invaluable information from the material presented. Its authors masterfully and lucidly convey the salient points of their respective expertises in each of the major themes presented (general microbiology, microbial diversity, immunology and epidemiology, and molecular biology and microbial genetics). The sections pertaining to microbial diversity are particularly well done and informative, as are those providing a general, basic background to microbiology. The book (ninth edition) contains 991 pages in 24 chapters, as well as a glossary, a superb index, and 2 appendices (the first containing useful bioenergetic calculations; the second presenting a taxonomic hierarchy from Bergey's Manual of Systematic Bacteriology). There are many photographs and micrographs (invariably of outstanding quality) supplementing the text throughout. These, in addition to various tables and clear, colorful figures, aid the student in visualizing the most important points of the text. The tasteful and copious use of color in figures throughout the book serves two purposes: It adds visual interest while detering the mundane, overly sober look of some other publications, and more importantly, it allows the reader to see vital associations between particular related elements in each figure, and often, in several figures. The book also employs the use of "feature boxes" to elucidate related or historically significant applications of material presented in the text. Rather than being distracting or disruptive to the flow of the text, I found these boxes to be informative and interesting supplements. The overall look and feel of the book is very well done. It somehow actually looks INVITING, which, as any undergraduate student knows, is extremely appreciated when it comes time to actually sit down and do some reading. The text itself is presented in a clear, progressive manner from start to finish and provides the student with a plethora of essential concepts and facts in the immense world of microbiology. As stated above, the book is aimed towards upper-level undergraduate students, so some of the more in-depth and detailed aspects of the concepts are understandably omitted. Otherwise, the book would have to be ridiculously lengthy and unnecessarily complex for its intended audience. As it stands, this publication is very comprehensive and will serve as a valuable resource for any student or teacher of the subject.

A picture book for children that is entirely unreal.:
Review by Dr Giovani Bassi, Rome/Torino, Italy. \oM.A. Music, B.Sc. Physics, M.Sc. Chemistry, Ph.D. Physical Organic Chemistry (thesis: general theory of synthesis of kinetically stabilized high-energy compounds). Lecturer on graduate-level quantum mechanics, applied maths, enzyme mechanics (my chief research area), relativistic biophysics etc.\c The 8th edition of this well-known textbook - which is the first edition of the text I personally encounter, why no (rather useless) comparisons can be made with other editions in this present review - belongs in the now widely accepted (apparently) category of (especially biology-oriented) textbooks that have replaced all responsibility for our students' development as critically thinking, independent individuals with presenting an arbitrarily composed array of "particulate" bits of information, that students' can memorize and then use in completing multiple-choice exams. These bits of information (not worthy to be called facts) are particulate in the sense that they cannot be broken down into more fundamental components; unlike some "particles", though, the bits presented here fail to cohere or make visible those very simple and elegant threads (they are all man-made, after all!) that bind together the present paradigm on biological genesis, evolution and maintenance. I personally cannot think about Any course for which I in good conscience could recommend this textbook! Critically minded students will refuse to use it, so they are safe, as long as they can find better books to use for their coursework (no recommendations, sorry, other than to go via biophysics and obtain your own analytical machinery). But those that are Not so critical, they will, if they desire understanding, be distressed by the difficulty in connecting related facts, or - even worse - forget, or loose belief in, that facts at all Can be connected in biology. Many in the last category eventually "progress" to "working lab rats" in pharmaceutical companies, and since there is always a need for these relatively low-paid, obedient individuals, publishers, greedy authors and some colleges - observing the market need for them, or perhaps even acting in response to market-expressed needs - consider producing brain-washed, unthinking automata in our colleges justified. (I personally would never sponsor a college that uses books of this variety, or recommend it to a child of mine, since I believe that our world would be a better place if its inhabitants were more independent thinkers.) The book is filled with colourful flow charts, question boxes, tables etc., all meant to assist you in engraving the information into your memory. Organizing that information (which of course is the best route to long-term "memorization") is impossible, however, not least since the information given is of different varieties for each of the organisms and complete comparisons between different organisms thus cannot be made. The molecular basis of disease is of course mentioned heavily, but only rarely is it actually demonstrated explicitly. The chapters and paragraphs on chemistry, energetics and mathematics of bacterial multiplication (not "growth", an archaic term) etc. as well as the boxes on lab techniques etc. seem to belong in illustrated books for the kindergarten. Rarely have I seen anything so sloppy, incoherent and grossly misleading. The information given of cell biology, cell structure and genetics is identical to that given in junior high-school, which seems odd to me, as the average person found in a microbiology class has had general chemistry (possibly organic and bio too), and a heavy course on general cell biology. A thousand-page, multiple-semester textbook that fails so badly in outlining the "laws of biology" that More information has to be presented in whole-page "exception boxes" (without explanations, that should make students wonder if we really know Anything at all in biology!) on so called "funny" organisms - with "strange metabolism" etc. - should be taken off the shelves. Finally, the book has far too small margins, and pages drop out quickly. But the index is absolutely excellent. If you feel trapped as a student in the fuzzy pedagogical world of college biology - then drop it now and study physics instead, graduate on biophysics and then begin a fruitful carreer in biology! The molecular approach is the only one for the future (not least since, 1) physicists are beginning to look far more at applications, now that the Accelerator Era is over; 2) supramolecular chemistry and nanophysics/technology is exploding; 3) computer systems allow increasingly efficient design of specific, molecular locus-targeting drugs). It is likely that a large number of biologists will soon, within the present decade, be forced by their employers to study computer science, maths and physical chemistry. I wish you luck!

A picture book for children that is entirely unreal.:
Review by Dr Giovani Bassi, Rome/Torino, Italy. \oM.A. Music, B.Sc. Physics, M.Sc. Chemistry, Ph.D. Physical Organic Chemistry (thesis: general theory of synthesis of kinetically stabilized high-energy compounds). Lecturer on graduate-level quantum mechanics, applied maths, enzyme mechanics (my chief research area), relativistic biophysics etc.\c The 8th edition of this well-known textbook - which is the first edition of the text I personally encounter, why no (rather useless) comparisons can be made with other editions in this present review - belongs in the now widely accepted (apparently) category of (especially biology-oriented) textbooks that have replaced all responsibility for our students' development as critically thinking, independent individuals with presenting an arbitrarily composed array of "particulate" bits of information, that students' can memorize and then use in completing multiple-choice exams. These bits of information (not worthy to be called facts) are particulate in the sense that they cannot be broken down into more fundamental components; unlike some "particles", though, the bits presented here fail to cohere or make visible those very simple and elegant threads (they are all man-made, after all!) that bind together the present paradigm on biological genesis, evolution and maintenance. I personally cannot think about Any course for which I in good conscience could recommend this textbook! Critically minded students will refuse to use it, so they are safe, as long as they can find better books to use for their coursework (no recommendations, sorry, other than to go via biophysics and obtain your own analytical machinery). But those that are Not so critical, they will, if they desire understanding, be distressed by the difficulty in connecting related facts, or - even worse - forget, or loose belief in, that facts at all Can be connected in biology. Many in the last category eventually "progress" to "working lab rats" in pharmaceutical companies, and since there is always a need for these relatively low-paid, obedient individuals, publishers, greedy authors and some colleges - observing the market need for them, or perhaps even acting in response to market-expressed needs - consider producing brain-washed, unthinking automata in our colleges justified. (I personally would never sponsor a college that uses books of this variety, or recommend it to a child of mine, since I believe that our world would be a better place if its inhabitants were more independent thinkers.) The book is filled with colourful flow charts, question boxes, tables etc., all meant to assist you in engraving the information into your memory. Organizing that information (which of course is the best route to long-term "memorization") is impossible, however, not least since the information given is of different varieties for each of the organisms and complete comparisons between different organisms thus cannot be made. The molecular basis of disease is of course mentioned heavily, but only rarely is it actually demonstrated explicitly. The chapters and paragraphs on chemistry, energetics and mathematics of bacterial multiplication (not "growth", an archaic term) etc. as well as the boxes on lab techniques etc. seem to belong in illustrated books for the kindergarten. Rarely have I seen anything so sloppy, incoherent and grossly misleading. The information given of cell biology, cell structure and genetics is identical to that given in junior high-school, which seems odd to me, as the average person found in a microbiology class has had general chemistry (possibly organic and bio too), and a heavy course on general cell biology. A thousand-page, multiple-semester textbook that fails so badly in outlining the "laws of biology" that More information has to be presented in whole-page "exception boxes" (without explanations, that should make students wonder if we really know Anything at all in biology!) on so called "funny" organisms - with "strange metabolism" etc. - should be taken off the shelves. Finally, the book has far too small margins, and pages drop out quickly. But the index is absolutely excellent. If you feel trapped as a student in the fuzzy pedagogical world of college biology - then drop it now and study physics instead, graduate on biophysics and then begin a fruitful carreer in biology! The molecular approach is the only one for the future (not least since, 1) physicists are beginning to look far more at applications, now that the Accelerator Era is over; 2) supramolecular chemistry and nanophysics/technology is exploding; 3) computer systems allow increasingly efficient design of specific, molecular locus-targeting drugs). It is likely that a large number of biologists will soon, within the present decade, be forced by their employers to study computer science, maths and physical chemistry. I wish you luck!