Publisher's Synopsis
Written and illustrated with unsurpassed clarity, Molecular Biology: Principles and Practice introduces fundamental concepts while exposing students to how science is done. The authors convey the sense of joy and excitement that comes from scientific discovery, highlighting the work of researchers who have shaped - and who continue to shape - the field today.
Key features include:
Moment of Discovery
Each chapter opens with a description of a significant breakthrough in molecular biology relevant to that chapter, as told by the scientist who made the discovery. They make this a relevant, living subject to students.
Examples include:
- Joe DeRisi, on his discovery of the SARS virus (Chapter 8)
- Melissa Jurica, on her discovery of the first EM structures of spliceosomes (Chapter 16)
- Bonnie Bassler, on her discovery of interspecies quorum sensing (Chapter 20)
How We Know
This end-of-chapter section combines fascinating stories of research and researchers with actual experimental data for students to analyze, often drawing on the work of the scientist featured in the chapter's 'Moment of Discovery.' This ensures the material covered in the book is always shown to be relevant to how scientists really work.
Unanswered Questions
A short section at the end of each chapter describes important areas still open to discovery, showing students that even well-covered subjects such as nucleic acid structure and DNA replication are far from fully explored. This emphasises the evolving nature of the subject and show students how their work could have impact in the future.
Key Conventions
These brief paragraphs clearly lay out for student some fundamental principles often glossed over by instructors and textbooks because they are so well understood by professionals. They are helpful to students, who could otherwise be thrown by such assumptions.
Highlights
Throughout each chapter, special features focus on fascinating topics that enhance student understanding of the concepts:
- Medicine looks at diseases that arise from defects in biochemical pathways, or examples of how concepts learned in molecular biology have contributed to drug therapies or other treatments.
- Technology focuses on cutting-edge molecular biology methods that students will likely be hearing about or even using in the future.
- Evolution reveals the role of molecular biology research in understanding key biological processes and the connections between organisms.
- A Closer Look highlights a wide variety of additional, intriguing topics.
- Encourages practice and critical thinking
End-of-Chapter Problems
These give students the opportunity to think about and work with the chapter's key ideas. Each problem set concludes with a Data Analysis Problem, giving students the crucial experience of interpreting real data from actual research (most often the work described in the 'How We Know' section). Solutions to the problems can be found at the end of the book.
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