5 comments about Elements of Chemical Reaction Engineering (4th Edition) (Prentice Hall International Series in the Physical and Chemical Engineering Sciences).

1. In contrast with what my fellow Ann Arbor reviewer (and most likely UM ChE student), I tended to think that Fogler's book was an excellent way by which to learn the principles of Chemical Reaction Engineering. The book is well organized and while the chapters may skip some, the principle chapters (1-6 in the sixth printing) are the recommended starting chapters. Once passing through chapters 1 - 6, the topics do deviate some, but the fundamental principles necessary to understand any of the topics in chapters 7 and beyond are well established prior to engaging the later material. While my colleague from Ann Arbor may be correct in noting that there are several different printings of the third edition text, Fogler provides adequate typo errors on the text website. In terms of POLYMATH, Fogler does rely on this computer software to show many of the examples in his book. For a good bulk of the examples and homework problems, however, the operation of POLYMATH is extremely easy. If one knows how to type equations into a table and press a 'calculate' button, one can easily run POLYMATH. Fogler provides the program on the CD that accompanies the text. It makes solving differential equations (and their solution curves) much easier than doing so by hand.

   I must say that this is the best Chemical Engineering textbook I've had as a student (Geankopolis was a close second). Fogler establishes the principles of CRE well, and the language of the text is not above and beyond reading comprehension. The style Fogler uses is very algorithmic, which, after utilizing the algorithm over and over again, makes reactor design problems much easier to deal with.

   Having been one of Fogler's students, I will agree that he tries very hard to relate to students. He is the only professor I've had that tries to learn each student's name. While there might be a few interesting (cheesy) examples and illustrations in the book, they do at times provide some comical relief from the rigors of Chemical Reaction Engineering. Not to mention, the additional material (Interactive Computer Modules, Real World Examples, Chaper Notes, Self Tests) that Fogler provides on the text CD an website are available to further enrich the mind of a struggling learner.

   This book, at least from a student's perspective, is wonderful!




2. This has been the best chemical engineering book in my undergraduate education, BY FAR. Not only does the book rpesent concepts that are easy to understand, but they are also reinforced continually with plenty of example problems from the accompanying CD. The CD also has a few modules and "games" to help out. All in all, from the standpoint of an undergraduate dealing with this course material, the book is excellent in helping students with different learning styles learn the material. I have no knowledge whether the depth of the subject is thorough enough for real world applications, but I suspect it is.



3. Best book by far that I have had as undergrad. Highly recommended. We all love it at the University of Utah.



4. This book is good not only as a text book because of the simple way it presents the subject, the problems, and the complementary examples on the CD. It is also a great reference, because it has every chapter sumarized by the end, with the formulas. It includes multiple examples both on the book and the Cd, and allows full use of computational tools applied on the problem solving.



5. The book was very clear in the concepts it introduced. Laid out clearly the derivations and especially appreciated the topic sentence on the side of each paragraph. Although the book is clear in the text, I wish the summaries at the end of each chapter would list the assumptions that it makes for each equation so you don't have to look back to the rest of the chapter.

5 comments about Biomaterials Science, Second Edition: An Introduction to Materials in Medicine.

1. It's hard to cover EVERYTHING related to biomaterials in one book, but the topics that are covered in this book are done so in detail. I don't really like how the book is pretty much a collection of works, but I understand how this allows each topic to be covered by an expert in that field. Overall, I find this book to be very useful in all of my classes.



2. This is a great text that sums up the body's response to biomaterials. It has good introductory sections to materials science issues, tissue engineering, and immunology.



3. I had this book required for a class, and although it certainly has a lot of information, it is a very poor textbook especially for an introduction. There is WAY too much information on some subjects and unnecessary detail. It reads more like a collection of peer reviewed articles than it does a textbook. The authors need to learn to HIGHLIGHT the important results and summarize information in a concise way. Even graphs are presented in very confusing manner (variable symbols not consistent in comparable graphs. Many authors also makes for different style changes...
   
   Then again, I have little background in biology, and only moderate interest in the subject, so that might slant my opinion.



4. Not a product for the new biomaterialist. Recommended for persons in the field or planning to enter the field. Chapters are complete, concise and detailed allowing for quick analysis. The book is organized very cleanly and permits one to use either as a reference or as an in depth reference on the subject. Solid for use in lab.



5. This book is widely used for grad-level biomaterials courses and for a good reason: it is a compilation of the forefronts of biomaterials research, including chapters written by well-regarded experts in the field. Any biomaterials researcher can look through the list of contributors and tell you that almost every single one listed is a big name when it comes to biomaterials conferences. As such, the material is presented in a way that will benefit someone who's reading it for background or reference to projects in academic research/industrial R&D.
   
   This is a very heavy book materials-wise, and is NOT for anyone who is looking to have an easy, leisurely nighttime read. The topics may seem disconnected for the unprepared. For example, out of the entire "Types of Biomaterials" unit, there are individual chapters on hydrogels, metallic biomaterials, inorganic biomaterials, etc that took up maybe a good 200 pages, and it's almost difficult to go from one chapter to the next in one sitting and take it on like you would a textbook. For more of a structured textbook, you may want to refer to a book by Temenoff and Mikos published recently.
   
   Instead, this book is more of a fixture in the reference shelf of any biomaterials researcher. It is one that you pick up and read a few chapters out of depending on what you're planning on running experiments and furthering the field of. If you treat this book more as a reference book than a textbook, then you will find the reasons why it deserves 5 stars.

5 comments about Culture of Animal Cells: A Manual of Basic Technique.

1. Freshney's Culture of Animal Cells is a great book. It is writen on an easy style, it is concise and complete at the same time and it does teach you all the basics (and a little bit more) of cell culture. When I was doing my masters I didn't have a lot of help with my cell culture experiments and this book was fundamental for my research. The book covers everything, starting from the biology of cultured cells, equipments, design of the lab and asseptic technique and going all the way to primary culture, cloning and selection, cell separation, characterization, differentiation and more. The book (hard cover) is pretty resistant and it easily stands going to the bench (where you surely will be using it a lot). If you are thinking about spending money on a book about cell culture techniques this is the book! Don't think twice.



2. For many years Freshney's Culture of Animal Cells has been the gold standard of tissue culture reference books. This new edition adds and updates many techniques and continues to be the best book in its area. I use it extensively both for my own research and in teaching classes on tissue culture.



3. I purchased this book with a description of like new. I would say this is new. The previous person who used this did not even break in the binder. This is an excellent reference book, I have enjoyed reading the text up to this point.



4. There are not a lot of glossy pretty pictures, which is a good thing for a no-nonsense instruction manual that gets the point across with what pictures it did have. I found it to be a very good complement to my cell culture class. Everything I learned in the lab was put into context nicely.



5. Based on protocols in this book, I devised methods to complete my own experiments. I found the insights contained in the book completely indispensable. The range of topics it contains and the detail with which Freshney explains each point made the process of designing conditions for experiments rational and approachable. I highly recommend this book.

No comments about Physical Chemistry for the Biosciences.

3 comments about Genomes 3.

1. I bought this book for a graduate genome class. I will say that it was optional for the class but it is definitely written for the undergraduate level of genetics. If you are taking a graduate class with this book, think about taking something else or prepare to read many others books to fully understand the material. The book is great for a basic understanding. Lots of basic info and easy to read and understand.



2. This is a great book! It takes some VERY difficult concepts and makes them much easier to understand. The way that the book is organized also provides a nice logical flow. Also, the CD that comes with the book has all of the figures and powerpoint slides of the figures on it, which makes for a nice study tool.



3. My professor recommended this book for my graduate course, but it turned out to be a huge disappointment. Many times I wanted to burn this book down. It is poooooooorly written, full of run on sentences and akward sentence structures. I often have to look up the course materials online because the book did such a poor job explaining it. Even wikipedia did a way better job in explaining things !Please do not waste your money on purchasing this book, you will be just as disappointed as I am !

5 comments about Biological Sequence Analysis: Probabilistic Models of Proteins and Nucleic Acids.

1. I will agree and submit: this is an invaluable introduction to the field of bioinformatics. With introductions to everything from sequence analysis to hidden markov models and even a primer on grammars, this is a useful introduction both to biological applications for computer scientists *as well as* computational methods for biologists.
   
   I am in a joint graduate-level biology/computer science class and we are using this book as a foundation to bring both groups up to speed and it seems to be working out nicely.
   
   However, one criticism is that sometimes Durbin et al jump into subjects without an adequate introduction or with one that is overcomplexified. In other words, they sometimes break Einstein's the rule of "make everything as simple as possible but not simpler". Durbin et al do not always make things as simple as possible. And it is annoying when they do not. Especially when I see them confusing the bejebus out of the biology people over computer science concepts that are really not that complicated through overly technical jargon.
   
   But this is rare and they provide many insightful diagrams to clear up their algorithms as well as lucid ways to introduce biological concepts. Sometimes the introduction of an algorithm/theory *and* a biological concept molds together beautifully such that the reader is simultaneously being infused with both. An example of this phenomenon is their dual introduction to CpG islands and markov models.



2. Although this book is based primarily on work that was completed in 1998, and therefore somewhat out of date, it is the best book I have found for teaching bioinformatics. I selected this as the best of the available books on the subject for use in my bioinformatics and numerical methods course which is to be taught in the fall of 2007 at Univ. of Conn. This course is an upper division undergraduate and first year graduate course. That is roughly the level of this text and the comparative advantage of this book is the excellent presentation and thorough discussion of the algorithms. A student armed with Matlab or MathScriptor can take this book and start writing algorithms for sequence alignment and Hidden Markov Method (HMM) analysis after only the first three or four chapters. This book is in its 11th printing and is nearly error free (I found only a few in the figures). This book is strongly recommended for both students and researchers, particularly those interested in protein alignment, phylogenic analysis or an introduction to Hidden Markov Methods.



3. A great reference and a good introduction to many important concepts in sequence analysis. However, if you don't have a reasonable grounding in math you may struggle with the terse notation.
   
   Borodovsky's companion book is an excellent partner for this book. Get both.



4. This book gives an excellent introduction into sequence analysis for a person who is already somewhat familiar with the basics of Bayesian techniques. The authors illustrate concepts, as and when they are introduced, via carefully selected examples; comprehension is made much easier because of this.



5. While this is perhaps the best book on Hidden Markov Models in Bioinformatics available, you would do well to read Rabiner's review paper. For me this is the type of book that would put potential students off bioinformatics for life. It is too technical and uses inappropriate notation. It has too many "It is easily shown" phrases which means that actually the real proof would be rather involved. Dynamic programming is not explained very well.
   
   If you have a maths or computer background then go for it but if you prefer your Bio in Bioinformatics then stay well clear and go for Mount.

No comments about The Politics of Life Itself: Biomedicine, Power, and Subjectivity in the Twenty-First Century (In-formation).

1 comments about Numerical Computation in Science and Engineering (Topics in Chemical Engineering).

1. This is an extremely useful and well-written book. It is perfectly organized and very well structured. The level is just right; not too simple and not too tough. The software is a big bonus. Everything I have needed on numerics I have found in this book. Highly recommended.

5 comments about Molecular Cloning: A Laboratory Manual (3-Volume Set).

1. So few and so much to say about this bible of Biology at the bench...
   You'll really find everything you want in it, including the composition of all the buffers and solutions, the new protocols for high-tech biology (FLIM-FRET), some paragraphs about bioinformatics and more.Incredibly precise, this book is consequently a big book (3 huge volumes), so better know exactly wath you're looking for before opening it!
   The must have of every lab!



2. For many years the previous edition of this set was an essential reference in molecular biology labs. At present however, there are too many good protocol books out there to really make this argument. The book is pretty strong in explaining theory, and answering the question of why certain procedures are either necessary, useful, or worthless, however it is not as practical as many other books, such as Short Protocols. Still a good reference overall, but no longer stands alone, and I recommend checking out as much of the competition as possible before deciding whether to make the investment in it.



3. This revised version of the Standard Lab Handbook has been improved, completed with new techniques and search is facilitated by the indices added at the end of each volume.



4. This manual is high quality for the study of biotechnology. The authors collected lot of protocols and provided more detail of principle than previous two editions. The third edition involved three volumes. The manual is very useful for lab researcher.



5. The books arrived in good condition, but it took a long time to arrive here.

5 comments about Molecular Genetics of Bacteria (Snyder, Molecular Genetics of Bacteria).

1. This is an excellent and in-depth presentation of the molecular genetics of prokaryotes. Explanations are crystal clear throughout, and the diagrams are very well done. (Typographical errors are everywhere, but fortunately they are easy to spot and none of them are misleading.) The text can seem long at times, but the extra effort spent reading is repaid in terms of clarity. The authors are careful to insure everything is explained well. The book also covers several areas of prokaryotic biology besides molecular genetics, such as cell division, antibiotics, transport of molecules across the cell membrane, two-component signaling pathways, bacteriophages, and many others.

   This is undoubtedly the best introduction to prokaryotic biology out there. Highly recommended.




2. This book is great in developing the concepts and explaining in an easy but at the same time techinical way just what is involved in bacterial genetics. Teaching from the historical perspective you really get a sense of what these researchers were faced with and just how valuable their breakthoughs were. It doesn't try to be "hip" like so many other undergraduate textbooks out there, and for that they get full credit. The figures are a little simplistic though.



3. This is one of few college textbooks I've used that has actually HELPED me learn the course material. The book takes you from the basics (DNA structure and replication, etc.) all the way through some very complex concepts while never missing a beat. It's surprisingly readable and student-user-friendly whether you're a beginner or a certifiable gene jockey. My only complaint is the quality of the figures; some of them are very small and thus hard to read, and as one reviewer commented, they are sort of simplistic to the point of not being very thorough. Having full-color illustrations would be a big plus.
   
   Overall, this book definitely surpasses other bacterial genetics books I've seen as far as readability and organization goes. It delivers what it promises!



4. If you are a "visual learner," then this is NOT, I repeat, NOT, the book for you- I cannot emphasise this enough!
   
   The text is very well written, however, the font used is rather small, and there are only FOUR colors used throughout the entire book.
   
   The text is done entirely in light brown, black, grey and white.
   
   Students like me -strongly visual learners- will be miserable; everyone else will like the book.



5. This is a great current reference book! The information is presented in a logical easy to read style. Good for beginning and advanced students.