Microbe

I had to buy this book for a microbiology class, and I've now resorted to trying to supplement all the assigned readings with bits of last year's textbook borrowed from a friend. First, this book is very superficial - it doesn't have a serious amount of information on anything. It looks like a book for children compared to the old, traditional textbook. There is a graphic in the margins suggesting the reader visit a website for supplemental info every few pages, but I shouldn't have to be sitting at a computer to read a textbook. There are 3 inches of blank margin, why didn't they just print the information there? It wouldn't be "cutting-edge" enough?Further, I hope the previous reviewer didn't try too hard to learn molecular bio from this, because it's riddled with errors. Our prof told us to cross out a whole page of fueling diagrams because they were so wrong it was beyond saving. Another page shows glycolysis making ATP in the first step (that's way more awesome than that old-fashioned glycolysis cycle I learned last year in biochem!) Another page says reduction when it means oxidation. Another page miscategorizes Pseudomonas as a hydrogen bacteria. And that's all in chapter 6 alone! There are also constant grammar and punctuation errors, which are inexcusable and distracting, but not as scary as all the wrong info.

A decent intro to microbiology - more in-depth than most intro courses, but not nearly detailed enough for someone studying this stuff as a career.

Other books are more helpful. This book often bolded unnecessary words and included information that wasn't needed. It doesn't really explain some concepts and is very unorganized in it's presentation of the material. I would look elsewhere like a pearson or mcgraw hill book on microbes. I only purchased this book because it was required reading for a class and it really failed to explain a lot of things that it should have.

After reading the available 'mixed' reviews, I purchased this book with a degree of trepidation, fearing a disappointment. As a physical chemist and a chemical engineer interested in prokarytoes as porous self-regulating chemical reactors with the unusual ability to self-construct, I found the book very readable, with a wealth of very interesting information, particularly for a non-microbiologist. The novelty and usefulness of this textbook is the balanced focus on a cell in toto, without any undue emphasis on microbial genetics, metabolism, or medical pathology. The great diversity of unusual 'chemical engineering' phenomena that microbes are capable of is mind-boggling and is well represented. The level of the book is also very suitable for my purpose, lying between a community college level and a graduate level textbooks. One aspect I miss is the absence of a 'historical' thread and of key original references to microbial literature, which could be perhaps added in future editions. I wonder if the authors would write a book in a similar style to Tanford's "Nature's Robots" but using microbes rather than proteins as the subject.

good with business.

Great diagrams.

This book is really simple and it does a good job at explaining some of the basics. I used it as a foundation book in a grad-level class (as a reference for some basic concepts) and it seemed to work well. Just don't expect it to go into great detail about any one topic. Each chapter on metabolism or genetics could easily be a full semester on its own.This thing is expensive and it isn't worth the money. The website is just links to external sites with papers and crude cartoons to explain concepts. These authors are making money hand over fist on rehashing basic concepts-welcome to college!An average book that loses one star for costing way more than it needs to.

Great Book! Great Price