Basic Sciences Books

Overall I thought some of the analysis was incorrect as the author allows for government intervention more than is logically (or empirically) necessary. Overall it is a good book, but not as good as Free to Choose, Basic Economics, or Economics in One Lesson. Nevertheless, I wish more liberals read the book so they can learn about positive side about free markets.

"Naked Economics" is an attempt by Professor Wheelan to make economics more accessible to everybody. There are no graphs, precious few numbers and it is laid out pretty simply. It is an enjoyable read, though not so compelling that I couldn't put it down. The examples and stories make the principles very clear and enjoyable.

I would recommend this book to anyone that didn't take the introductory Economics class in college and wants to know more. Or even if you did take it and didn't feel like you got much out of it, this book will be instructive. If you have more formal training in economics, you might still enjoy the book, but you might also look for something with more meat.

This has to be among the best "popular" economics books out there, if not THE best. The book has pretty much everything one could hope for:

- Broad coverage of economics
- Clear explanations of concepts
- Abundance of practical examples to illustrate the concepts
- A writing style bordering on perfection (economics made entertaining!)
- Reasonably balanced treatment of controversial topics

One of the central points illustrated by the book is that we're prone to making bad economic decisions when we oversimply matters and neglect secondary, cumulative, and long-term consequences. The examples in the book illustrate this point, though one could argue that many of the examples are themselves oversimplified to the extent that one might draw wrong conclusions. However, I think that criticism would be unfair, since it should be self-evident that the examples are illustrative, rather than attempts to be comprehensive analyses of the issues involved.

Like most nonfiction books, I would have loved to have a bullet-point summary of key points at the end of each chapter, but the book still fully deserves 5 stars and my highest recommendation.

Economics lies at the heart of most policies. In order to understand these policies, one should have a basic understanding of economics; however, economics can be a "dismal science" which pretty much means its boring.

The problem with economics is that the charts and statistics can many times be confusing. While some branches of economics such as Austrian economics are simpler to understand, mainstream economics is difficult. Naked Economics provides a change in pace for those that really do not have a great deal of understanding in economics.

The book, however, is not for only those individuals that have never studied economics. I have studied it some and this book provided a real understanding of some of the more difficult subjects such as the Federal Reserve.

The main problem with this book is that many times the author talks of his politic views. With the environment, the author deems that environmental issues are issues for the economy and government almost immediately. Other measures such as social change are not discussed. He is also pro-bush from the readings as noted in other reviews. I do not hold this against him because I realized that if he was anti-bush I would probably not hold it against him.

This book is really quite good at explaining economic concepts without using any math or graphs. As a high school econ teacher, I see some students who immediately understand a concept if they see a graph that shows the relationship; most students don't work that way though and this book provides a lot of anecdotes that can be used to illustrate key concepts. Definitely useful as a supplemental reader at the secondary level.

This book is great if you want to learn about what you can do with regex, how they work, how you can improve them (efficiency & accuracy) and what kind of pitfalls there are.

My only gripe is about the Ruby reference on the cover. In the top right corner it says: "For Perl, PHP, Java, .NET, Ruby and more!" Perl, Java, .NET and PHP each get their own chapters (together 200 pages). Ruby, however, only participates in feature comparisons and benchmarks. If I had checked the ToC I would've known this, so I won't hold it against the book that much.

The Ruby thing is a bummer, but since the book is great, it will get all five stars.

The book is robust and goes into alot detail. I liked the comparing and contrasting between the various RegEx implementations. I had a difficult time digesting some of the detail. In particular, the analogies confused me and I felt the author went overboard with them. Many times, I had to backtrack to understand what was being discussed. However, regular expressions is a complex topic and the author did a good job easing into the concepts. An additional plus was with inline page citation - this helped to find the page corresponding to the topic being discussed.
I would have liked shorter chapters with chapter summaries and more diagrams in place of analogies. Ultimately, Mastering Regular Expressions is a good book referencing a complex topic.

I went through several books and online tutorials and never found anything that did a good comprehensive job of explaining regular expressions. This book does. If you are having trouble "getting it", I highly encourage reading this book. You will be extremely enlightened even after the first few chapters.

Quite a comprehensive guide to regular expressions. Gets very detailed in the areas that it covers. However, definitely not a 'beginner's guide'. I highly recommend that you are already comfortable with the basis of regular expressions before picking up this book. You will get way more out of it if this is not your first introduction to it. Comfort and proficiency with Perl would also be a big help. Title is correct though, this is a guide to 'mastering' regular expressions, not learning them from the beginning.

How deep down the rabbit hole do you really NEED to go? I had a serious need to get on top of regular expressions to solve one particular problem. I looked at several online tutorials which didn't take me where I needed to go, so I ordered Mastering Regular Expressions after reading the Amazon reviews. I always look at the negative reviews first. In spite of the negative reviews I ordered the book with an open mind.
When the book arrived I began reading it with enthusiasm. In the preface there is a small section on "How to Read This Book". I bought into the author's suggestion to read the book's first six chapters first. I was captivated through the first three chapters, and then somewhere in chapter 4 I began to get very weary with information overload. After putting the book down for a couple of days I decided to skip the rest and use what I needed to write the one regular expression I had need of. The book did successfully help me accomplish this, so I gave it 3 stars. Not only did it give me the information I needed that the online tutorials didn't, it also gave me the confidence I needed. For that, which I am grateful, I would have liked to have given it more stars. I think many of those in need of learning about regular expression could be well served by a "lite-edition" of this book. Perhaps someday when I have the time and the need I may try to wade through the rest of the book, but as it is now Mastering Regular Expressions took me far farther down the rabbit hole than I really needed or wanted to go.
If you need to get on top of Regular Expressions, I would recommend this book, however just be ready to be taken far deeper than the average coder probably needs to go.

We use Netter's atlas for anatomy lab and in our own personal studying. The atlas has excellent cut-aways and has proven to be incredibly helpful when pulling all of the information together for exams.

If you're taking anatomy, you need this book...period. Very good illustrations of all the structures. I would recommend getting the hard cover since mine is falling apart slightly.

I couldn't have passed my anatomy test without this book. I like the way that each diagram peels away a part so you can see the underlying layers: it's a great tool in seeing and understanding where the muscles lie. The pictures are clearly readable and are of a decent size (inlcuding the text).

From what I have been able to gather online from the publisher (Elsevier), the Professional Edition is the only one that is supposed to come with the CD, which is purported to contain "over 80 of the most important anatomy illustrations from the book to use in presentations and lectures."

View the differences between the editions:
Professional 4th Edition:
http://www.us.elsevierhealth.com/product.jsp?isbn=9781416036999
Soft Cover 4th Edition:
http://www.us.elsevierhealth.com/product.jsp?isbn=9781416033851

It seems to be $60 more (at least, depending on where you look) for just for the CD (and the Hardcover opposed to the Soft Cover). The Professional Edition is more like a Reference book for a library, but hey maybe you need that. The 4th Ed. Soft Cover still comes with the ability to log onto "www.netteranatomy.com" for "Ninety plates from the book as well as a powerful and varied bank of ancillary material, unique to this atlas, are available online" through that Netter Anatomy Website. Through I'm fairly certain that the Professional Edition also comes with that ability.

Also in response to the earlier post, the Interactive Atlas of Human Anatomy 3.0 CD only comes with the 3rd Edition, not the newest 4th Edition. Here is the link just to that 3rd Edition CD:
Interactive Atlas of Human Anatomy 3.0, 3rd Edition:
http://www.us.elsevierhealth.com/product.jsp?isbn=9781929007141

Hope this helps.

Frank Netter, M.D. created approximately 20,000 paintings of the human body and provided countless medical students with an invaluable educational resource. He can be credited for teaching multiple generations of doctors worldwide. Although he is now deceased, his legacy continues to provide students with intricate knowledge that only a physician and gifted artist could have given. I am thrilled to have purchased what I consider an educational necessity for such a reasonable price.

It's arguably one of the best books about human behavior i have ever seen, although some of the data are not very reliable. Many shinning points about human especially the part talking about friends and foes. It can not be read as a academic reading but more like a philosophic one.

This is an evolutionary aspect of why we do the things we do and feel the positive side of the inherited genes. Our genes control our behavior at all times and in all situations.

This study of human behavior gives pointers in some issues we all have to deal with: the endless search for love and friendship, body image (it's not how you see yourself but how others see you), why we choose the partners we do to seek satisfying and happy lives. Instinct and gut reaction play a big part in this 'eternal quest' through 'elusive goals' toward happiness but always end up furthering the interest of our 'inherited genes.' Just as addictions such as eating too much, alcohol and cigarettes, casual sex, and other self-destructive 'pleasures' are inherited in our genes, as are fatal illnesses. We put our trusts and welfare in the hands (and moods) of a person we don't really know. It's amazing how many young people cut the strings connecting their heritage to wander from town to town, adopting false names. Sooner or latre, they become sated with this vagabond way of life. It's okay in the movies but not so good in real life. Lies rebound eventually.

These mean genes of ours can be turned into good genes we pass down to the next generation. Strays reach out to other strays to boost their inner worth, not considering the bad genes rampant in such behavior. Here you can pick up anyone with a fancy tounge and flattery. I joined in a conversation about how much I dislike the place )after a visitor said it is beautiful here), was told that I don't sound Southern. Amazing -- maybe I could live somewhere else even with my mean genes. "Surely there must be some limit. As we get richer and richer as a society, won't we reach a point of bliss?" Is there a silver lining and that pain goes away eventually and hurts less than we expect? Keep your personal goals alive but in perspective.

We should steer away from impetuous decisions. Be friends with happy people. Too much is never enough. Strive to become iniable to someone special. Beauty is as much in the mean gene of the beholder as the eye. Symmetry is a neat universal aphrodisiac. People choose a mate with a perfectly symmetrical face. The lucky ones have a body to match the face. Beauty is not skin deep. This is in the book. If you look deep into your choice's eyes, which reflect a person's soul, you can see and feel instincts which may prove you wrong later on. But taking a chance on love is better that no love at all. Life expectancy is longer in happy and well-satisfied couples. They chose well. Genes, after all, are the stuff of life. See the movie, "Married Life" and learn from example.

Jay has a PhD from Harvard after researching evolutionay genitics and aging. Terry stuck with Harvard where he earned his PhD and served with distinction as a U.S. Marine. Two intellectuals with a sense of humor. Why did I choose this book? Could be their conclution about survival, the purpose of life. I too have three PhDs in my family. Now ponder on that and see who is the Boop. Throughout this book, you'll find tales of both Terry and Jay, as many of my reviews reveal personal information of my existence in my old hometown. Like Hitchcock in the movies he directed, you have to look for them. Nothing is handed to those who only criticize on a silver platter. It is the mean genes coming to the fore when folks set out to hurt another person in any way.

If you enjoy reading a book that starts off discusing a topic as if the entire chapter will be devoted to this subject, this is not the book for you.The problem with this book is they starting off talking about x substance and the next thing you know a million other subjects are brought up. This book reads like a reserch paper put togethere the day before it is due in the middle of the night and afterwards your Professor looks at you with the expression, WHAT THE HECK WAS THIS BOOK ABOUT !
MORE FOCUS !

The book is easy to read, and aims to explain human behavior based on our psychological aspects and our genes. It's a good book, a book I will keep on my book shelf. However, it's nothing extraordinary, it will not change your life perspective by 180 degrees :).

This short book is very readable and at the same time, very informative. A lot of information from this book gives one a food for thought, especially the struggles for self-control.

Very insightful read and I would recommend it.

Sowell explains why liberals and conservatives do not work together to solve problems, such as education, in which all have a stake.

I have never read a book that taught me so much. It teaches how to think clearly about law, economics and social policy. It is worthy to be spoken of in the same tradition as Adam Smith and Edmund Burke: a classic.

Here you have another typical one-sided (read: one-sighted) book fully of finger pointing and false accusations. This book will appease any far right-leaning American who thinks that the left are idiots and liars. This book will offend anyone who leans to the left.

But if you are like me, and tread in the middle to nowhere category, this book will simply annoy you. Sowell talks about how the left (referred to as the "Anointed" literally three million times in the book) spins truths and statistics to get their way. He then does the same thing to refute te left's stances.

From his high horse he must have felt pretty good writing in 1995 that gas prices will never rise, that because we are always finding more natural resources there will never be an energy crisis. Wonder how he feels now. Hopefully as idiotic as he tried to make everyone else seem.

This book made me want to never read about politics again. Heap in with Ann Coulter propaganda trash.

In his previous work, A CONFLICT OF VISIONS, Thomas Sowell explored the issue of why people often tend to agree with the same people on seemingly distinct social and political issues. If a woman advocates generous welfare benefits, abortion on demand and preferential policies for blacks to compensate for the legacy of slavery, where do you think she stands on gun control? Yeah, maybe you will be wrong if you say she advocates strict gun control, but probably not.

As Sowell explained, the reason for this is because of the visions that people have about the world in which they live. Those with the constrained vision view humans as inherently very limited in what we can do and accomplish and advocate those social structures that allow us to best cope with such limitations. Those with the unconstrained vision view people as far more capable of achieving certain favorable ideals and goals, if only such limitations were not imposed upon us preventing us from doing so.

In THE VISION OF THE ANOINTED, Sowell explores the unconstrained vision further. This vision is predominant in the intellectual and political elite and often involves attitudes and opinions that are simply taken for granted. Whereas A CONFLICT OF VISIONS is more academic in tone (if one did not know Sowell himself was one with the constrained vision, one probably would not have gleaned it from the text), THE VISION OF THE ANOINTED is more polemical and ideological. Although that makes for a more fun read for the red meat crowd, it makes for a work of lesser importance in Sowell's oeuvre on ideas.

Early in the book Sowell makes it clear that the anointed vision is predominant not because it is empirically correct, but because it provides its visionaries with a sense of being on the moral high ground compared to the benighted others. The most important feature of the book, the one that has certainly stayed with me the longest and made the deepest impression, is Sowell's analysis of the irrelevance of evidence to those with this vision. As Sowell correctly points out, history is filled with people screaming from the sidelines that a society is about to hit the wall. Yet some mechanism within the vision itself prevents negative feedback from entering the ideological loop.

A comparison of the anointed vision with the benighted vision is provided as a refresher on the subject and example after example is provided as to how a vision of society in desperate need of the anointed's special insight leads to a worsening of the situation. The crusades of the anointed cover a wide ground, from protecting everyone from themselves with strict safety measures imposed on society, to eradication of racism and sexism, to seeking the root causes of crime. In each case, we can, so the vision goes, do so much more to help and even change our fellow man. In each case, however, more people are ultimately harmed, either directly through the recidivism of criminals or more indirectly, such as through the slow erosion of our ability to govern ourselves rather than have a non-elected judiciary impose its will on us.

Sowell seems to letting off a lot of personal steam in this book, again making it a more enjoyable but less substantive work than A CONFLICT OF VISIONS. But that is all relative. A lesser work by Sowell is still head and shoulders above almost anything else out there, except better books by Sowell himself. Any dispassionate reader will get an awful lot of insight out of THE VISION OF THE ANOINTED.

This is a brilliant book. I'm an historian (I teach history at a community college) and have studied, in depth, the philosophic background and history of the rise of modern secular ideology and its utopian vision--the people Sowell refers to as "the anointed" (and it is an accurate term). Sowell is hated by these people for two reasons: he's black and thus does not fit their stereotype of the down-trodden African-American, and his argumentation, which attacks some of the actual consequences of "the anointed's" philosophy, is buttressed by a wide ranging array of facts and evidence. To one who truly understands the philosophy of modern secularism, Sowell's book makes perfect sense and provides the factual data which proves absolutely many of the harmful effects of these "anointed" views.

If you truly read it, this book will make you mad. That there are people out there--who have power, and that's frightening--who want to tell you what to believe, who turn violent criminals loose on a whim, who'll take children away from their parents based upon their own view of how those children should be raised, who flat-out lie to the American people in order to gain the control they want...anybody who believes in freedom will burn in anger while reading this book. The American people, in general, have a sense that there is something wrong with our country, that there has been a gradual decline and degradation over the last generation or so. But most of them can't quite put their finger on what it is. Read this book and you'll find out why. Then come take my history course and I'll give you the historical background to all of it.

What Sowell writes about isn't happening by chance. As incredible as it is to decent, thinking Americans, there are actually people in this country who believe "the anointed's" philosophy. That they can get away with some of the things Sowell describes in this book tells us how stealthily they've stolen this country from the honest, moral people who built and who are still the backbone of it.

I am totally perplexed at the number of high ratings given to this book, because I just don't see it. Are people paid to write these reviews?I've been a romance reader for a long time and this book was just terribly disappointing for me.

There is almost no story line, I mean no plot what so ever. The lead character (heroine) interacts with mythological creatures whose motives or actions are never fully understood or explained. The ending of the book is not really an ending, it's just a lead in for the next book. And that's not even the worst part.

This book is stuffed with rambling filler that adds nothing to the story line. I got so tired of reading about how the author's favorite color was pink, and how she just wanted to dress in pretty clothes and lay by the pool. Ok ... I get it, she's a spoiled southern girl and so am I, but get on with the story for heaven's sake. Wasn't all of that stuff discussed in the first book? I can't imagine how dull it must have been.

There's no real romantic interaction between the heroine and her lead (who could be smokin hot, but the author obviously doesn't want to develop that part of the story yet), and in addition we get introduced to a new potential male lead (with no significant background exposition) about every 40 or 50 pages.

I really thought Lauren Hamilton's books were squirrelly enough, but she usually manages to bring her story together by the end of the book. So in my estimation she is leagues ahead of Karen Marie Moning (1st book of this author's that I have read).

Summary: This purchase wasn't just a waste of money. It was a waste of time.

Bloodfever keeps you captivated from the first page to the last. I am really looking forward to the next book in the Fever series.

I LOVED this book! I stumbled across this author and this book while looking for books to take on vacation. WOW! After finishing Bloodfever, I quickly came back to Amazon and bought the first book, Darkfever and pre-ordered Faefever - I'm hooked! (however, I must say that I really, really, *really* hate it when authors switch from paperback to hardback mid series.)

I'm glad I read this book first. Bloodfever was much faster paced and I thought the series really started to unfold. Mac is much more likable character in this book. I absolutely love Barrons - dark, mysterious, sexy. I'm also curious if Mac learns more about her biological mother and why she and Alina were given up for adoption.

I can empathize with other readers who posted about being disappointed about a favorite romance author going slightly off course (been there, done that with the JR Ward Black Dagger Brotherhood series), but as this was my first experience with Moning, I didn't have any expectations.

Karen Marie Moning is one of my all-time favorite writers! She is an inspiration to me because I want to be a writer of her calibur.
I'm in love with her highlander series and the fever series is right up there! Moning you really know how to keep a reader on their toes! =)
I'm extremely excited for "Fae Fever" as I'm sure its going to be as explosive as the first two. I'm glad to hear that there are going to be two more after Fae Fever. Thank you Mrs. Moning for giving everyone in the world something to look forward too and enjoy.

The first book I would have given a 3, I waited for this one to come out in paperback before I purchased it...I am intrigued. The story line is excellent, the characters are mysterious, it is dark and foreboding. Looking forward to the next one...

This is an amazing work that documents a decades-long effort to undercut a facts-based, reality-based, science respecting approach to public policy decisions.

What is sad is that, at the end of the day, despite the title, I would find it hard to believe that the majority of Republicans truly endorse the implications of this war ...

Mooney's excellent work truly opened my eyes ... sadly, the title will probably keep too many from even opening its cover.

I found this book quite dense with information and reports (even with updates in the second, paperback edition) from the embattled grounds of science policy and decision-making in the United States... It's very well written and in particular I'd say the author has done an excellent job to also line up all his references and sources, both on paper and in person, which is fundamental in a sweeping work of social journalism like this. It reads fluently, but due to the amount of ideas and specific cases reported it takes quite some attention...
What I liked most is that, from the countless specific examples of science abuse and trampling by the present political leadership in America, Mooney is able to let a broader picture emerge.. He doesn't spare any details about his trees, but leaves a wide clearing open to never lose sight of the forest. And the forest is a worrying one to say the least!
The Republican party ruling the country right now has dangerously mingled with political conservatives on one hand and religious moralists/fundamentalists on the other over the last decades. In trying to push forward their economic and moralistic agendas, these people have adopted a seriously undemocratic, immoral, and I'd say in general just plain reckless stance to ignore scientific advisory panels and experts who might help to formulate informed policies about several issues, from environmental management to public health to education... If you want a good example of the blinding ideologies they follow in their crusades, nothing better than giving a look at the idiotic rant (should I call it a review?) by one FC Robertson below. Stands as large as a monument to tell the whole story!
It's dangerous for the future of a country that its government willfully choose to ignore technical and factual data on many important issues and simply persevere in its partisan policies. And it's important that the public be informed in an exhaustive way of what has been going on for many years now... Mooney failed to observe, in his last and brilliant chapter on possible countermeasures, that public education not only in science, but more generally in basic thinking, is just as important as winning political wars to stop this trend. The media flood us daily with the latest inanities about Britney Spears, but they're easily duped into misreporting actual scientific controversies! They often fail big time in informing citizens correctly... And citizens don't have the slightest chance to recognize information biases or just plain absurdities, since they don't even know where to start to think independently. An ignorant public opinion (when there's any opinion at all!) in the hands of dishonest politicians means that a society cannot be called democratic. And how this is happening in the US today, but most likely not just there (we have our own European examples!), is masterfully explained in this little, important book.

This is absolutely essential reading for any citizen. It is tragic what is being done to science and civilization by rightwing, narrowminded extremists. The war on science, and culture, and reason, and education, etc., is mindboggling. These people are in an incessant race towards a new Dark Ages. This book is a harsh indictment of their anti-intellectualism and their detrimental policies.

This book may ignite a rage to storm the very gates of heaven. (Except that if you like it you probably don't believe in heaven, being a pinko liberal.) I exaggerate, perhaps, but there is sufficient material to disturb anyone who cares about America and the broader English-speaking world's position as leading scientific societies. Mooney documents an outrageous and systematic campaign to discredit, in effect, science itself wherever it delivers politically or religiously inconvenient findings. For anyone who cares about science's place in society this is required reading. Mooney's findings have been amply echoed elsewhere in popular and professional journals in recent years, so the phenomenon can reasonably be said to be real, but the sheer unshamefacedness of the campaign requires this popularising approach to really bring across.

The phenomenon is not entirely new, of course, and Mooney documents some of the history. However, the intensity and scope of persecution of science is rather unprecedented. Mooney documents the creationist campaign, which is nothing new except in the degree of political support accorded, together with further religiously-motivated interference in stem-cell research and contraception/prophylaxis in respect of AIDS. Further, there are chapters on environmental science documenting interference in assessments of the impact of fishing, logging, mining and especially of the impact and reality of anthropogenic warming. The origins and use of politically-loaded terms such as "junk science" merit careful attention.

In 1995, Speaker of the House, Newt Gingrich fired the first political salvo in the war on science by abolishing the Office of Technology Assessment (OTA). This was an impartial scientific committee that provided scientific consensus on issues brought to them from the political arena. Many of their findings conflicted with the interests of tobacco, energy, pharmaceutical, anti-environmnental, coal and oil lobbies, lobbies that contributed heavily to republican campaigns. With the dissolution of this organization, our lawmakers began to politicize science. The Gingrich campaign reached a new level of low by demanding "sound science" in making public policy. This was doublespeak for allowing every maverick scientist who was friendly to polluting industries or on their payroll, to dispute respected scientific consensus. Now, real science was denigrated as "being PC."

James Inhofe, republican senator from Oklahoma and anti-environmentalist carried on the tradition of the Gingrich revolution and the war on science. His formula is to 1) emphasize a commitment to "sound science;" 2) seize the remaining window of opportunity to challenge and dispute the scientific consensus; and 3) find experts "sympathetic to your view and make them "part of your message." This three-step approach is designed to convince the ignorant that he is for sound science when he is only interested in preventing scientific inquiry or conclusions interfering with his biggest campaign contributors--oil, gas and electric companies.

Through these pretensions of sound science, verbal legerdemain, and the passage of the Data Quality Act, the republican-led Congress has essentially been able to mire any environmental, climate or pollution control or public health bill in years of research and legal wrangling to prevent laws that will stymie the needs of their biggest contributors.

The White House has also made its contribution in many ways to misinform and mislead the public. This occurred early in 2001 when Bush lied about the number of viable stem cells for research. Official reports on global warming, for instance, have been redacted, changes ordered to make decisive conclusions equivocal ones, and even have environmental studies on the impact of carbon emissions written by a former oil executive. The White House also barred scientists from the Department of Health and Human Services from consulting with the World Health Organization without prior political approval.

The White House had been drifting in this direction for years with Ronald Reagan insisting on Star Wars even though shooting down missiles in space with other missiles was as likely as a man in Boston shooting the cigarette out of the mouth of a man in New York. Bush Sr. continued his "evolution" to the right with a pro-life stance, and his belief in a thousand points of light.

Under a republican banner, the Christian right having lost two landmark cases where they failed to keep evolution out of the classroom, and failed to get creationism in the classroom, created a marketing miracle with restyling the latter in a new package of intelligent design. Attempting to influence a scientifically ignorant public with fallacious claims of unexplained missing links, and evolution's lack of certainty, they have made inroads with the more intellectually gullible and naïve. To bolster their cause, they have enlisted a few "contrarian" scientists who have carried their guidon, but have failed to publish their stance in any peer-reviewed journal.

The Christian right has also promoted very flawed studies that supposedly revealed that adult stem cells are as viable as embryonic ones for research, that abortion was linked to breast cancer and psychosis, that condom use was ineffective against sexually-transmitted disease, and that abstinence-centered programs were the most successful sex education programs. They have even gone so far as to lobby against over-the-counter sale of the "day after" pill even though the drug works by blocking ovulation rather than interfering with implantation.

The author's counter-offensive on the republican war on science is devastating. His writing is lucid and well organized. He interviewed scores of people in preparation for writing this book. His facts are verifiable, and he has answers to every obfuscating argument the republicans, the White House, and the Christian Right can hurl. He is able to make dry topics interesting, and this book is a cornerstone for those looking for scientific answers to misleading "science."

Mooney concludes that science must be elevated to what it once was. OTA or an organization just like it should be reinstituted and reinvigorated. The presidential science advisor, relegated to insignificance, as a toady for the Bush administration, should be also elevated to its former level of prestige. A press should be more concerned with getting a scientific story right than worrying if they are giving equal time or space to those who would advocate the world is flat. An enlightened public should send the science imposters and their legislators packing back to private life.

This is rousing and informative. It tells us how to avoid an American Scientific Dark Age.

Attributes:
1. Wonderfully written in a lucid and point-of-fact manner w/minimal fluff.
2. The correlations are clearly laid out and a must for sensing the overall picture.
3. Fantastic diagrams and there are plenty of them.
4. Entire text is also accessible online which is very important for me because I can cut and paste the stuff and further abridge the contents of the book.
5. Easily readable from cover to cover.....and doing so multiple times is a really good way to encompass the entire width of the subject.
6. Very succinct chapter reviews at the end of each chapter which would satisfy the USMLE Step 1 needs I would think.

I for one am using this for my med-school biochem class and it is a veritable feast of biochem knowledge w/o being mentally bludgeoned by our prescribed text at AUC which is Lehninger.

I only wish the authors were able to write an entire textbook. A bridge between Lehninger and this guide. I for one would buy it in a heart-beat.

Thank you Dr's. Harvey, Champe and Ferrier...a superb and well executed effort.

this book is good for fast review before USMLE. biochemistry should be learnd from Devlin.

I absolutely love the Lippincott illustrated reviews series and this book continues that great tradition. The book is so well written with the perfect amount of detail. When you read these books you don't feel like your studying. The pictures are amazing and really help solidify the concepts. I highly recommend this book for any health professional. Biochem can be a duanting subject and this book greatly simplifies it!

I am a first year mature age medical student with a bit of biochemistry under my belt and with several other degrees completed in the past. I have read through dozens of weighty tomes in my lifetime and this is one of the best I have come across in any discipline.
This book goes into more detail than is perhaps required in first year medicine. However, I found it worth trying to read through because I find biochem one of those subjects where its difficult to just have a simplified explanation of things, sometimes the gaps in a simplified text mean nothing makes sense at all. In that case you may as well have put in the extra time to get the full story.
I found this book well laid out with excellent diagrams that sum up important relationships in biochem in a very accessible way. Unlike some review format books this one maintained a thread of explanation and I did not find myself becoming lost despite the complexity of the subject.
In all one of the best laid out effective, and clear textbooks Ive ever come across in many years of studies.

For those who like pictures along with their text, this book is great. Even though biochemistry is a detailed subject this book is not too weighed down in details and will allow you to understand the material fairly well. However, I stared to turn to it more as a reference than a main source. This may be because I thought that it was not calibrated appropriately for the usmle. It seems to be written more for a biochemistry class. It lacks in clinical correlations, the ability to be quickly reviewed, and there are precious few questions to get down the material at the end of each chapter. One feature that was nice, however, was a summary section at the end of each chapter. It is definitely not a comprehensive summary, but it does allow a quick summary of good things to know. All in all, a good book to have with you, but not the best source for the boards.

The book gives great concise information for orgo. Great practice problems - tells you what you need to know to solve and not much extraneous info. Wish I had bought it sooner.

This is a great book. We have an organic course for high school juniors and seniors at Columbus High, Columbus, GA, one of two such classes in the state of Georgia.

This is our book along with Organic Chemistry for Dummies. Together, they may an acceptionable pair.

I read this book after taking a year of basic high school chemistry. Klein does a fantastic job in the first 228 or so pages of explaining resonance, geometry, nomenclature, conformations, configurations, and introducing mechanisms. From these pages alone, I learned a lot more than I have ever learned about chemistry. Klein does a terrific job of explaining why, with plenty of analogies that doesn't involve chemistry. Plenty of problems are included for each topic, as well as answer keys. Seemingly, the answer key appears correct for maybe 99% of the problems, with tiny explanations for tougher problems. So, for most of the book, I'm cruising thanks to Klein's detailed explanations. After the chapter on substitution reactions chapter, the book is basically downhill. "There is one big difference between the last chapter and this chapter. In the last chapter, most of the information was given to you, and there was very little to look up in other sources...But now...YOU are going to provide the key information, by filling it in the appropriate places." From that point on, the information is either really skimpy or rushed (as in too much information without giving time for the reader to absorb it efficiently), with the assumption that you have a textbook or notes to rely on. Unfortunately, Klein's decision to let the reader think for themselves in the harder sections (mechanisms) is disappointing. If you're a student taking Organic Chemistry, you might have better luck with mechanisms, such as elimination, addition, and synthesis, than I did. If you're a student looking for clear-cut explanations on mechanisms, then this book may not be for you. Overall, this book helps you build a basic understanding of Organic Chemistry, using simple language. The list price is something the buyer has to consider for a black and white paperback book. Fortunately, I was able to borrow this from my local library.

This book is amazing because it is a textbook-workbook combo.

Most of the time in Orgo, homework is too difficult and tricky (that is, it is too far removed from the basic analysis techniques shown in the readings) to let the student learn while doing the homework.

However, this book is organized such that a workbook-like section follows every chapter- and plentiful problems (that are designed to reinforce technique application) of increasing difficulty in application follow each section...

but the best part about it- there's space in the book to write and draw!
and the paperback is so cheap it's very much worth it to just practice in the book and toss it away later.

This guide is the best... it gets right to the point, my orgo class used solomons text and that book includes a lot of extra info that was unnecessary for the orgo class.
The only disappointment was the elimination rxns section... it kept advising to go back to text book to find the help that was needed for the elimination rxns... which defeats the whole purpose of the book... its suppose to be a secondary source of help, sometimes it could be used as primary if the text book is no help. but other wise it was great!

This is an excellent and well-researched account of the Scopes Monkey Trial and the author skillfully dismantles much of the mythology surrounding the event. Recommended for anyone on either side of the evolution debate.

Edward Larson's book: Summer for the Gods is a Pulitzer Prize winning exploration of the 1925 Scopes Monkey Trial held in Dayton, Tennessee. In this extremely well researched book Larson looks at the many myths surrounding what many consider to be the trial of the twentieth century. Most of us have based our understanding of the trial on the play Inherit the Wind. Larson shows the play to be in many ways misleading and inaccurate. Scopes himself is actually a physics and math teacher called in by the Dayton town leaders to put the city on the map. The trial itself turns out to be more of a fight over what the state government should require to be taught in school versus individual rights. Larson examines both William Jennings Bryan and Clarence Darrow and concludes their motives are very different from what pop culture taught us. With all the current rumblings about "Intelligent Design", it would be wise for every citizen to know the real history, so we do not repeat some of the mistakes of the past.

The author did a great job of demystifying the trial, a task long overdue. The question was whether a state or community could prohibit teaching any theory or doctrine in the public classroom, and jury had decided that it could. If young Scopes was teaching Marx's theory of class struggle in history class, I think the outcome would have been the same, though I doubt there would have been even a fictionalized account opening on Broadway, thirty years later.

Yet somehow, because the theory in question was Darwinism, and because the trial was held in the Bible Belt, it has been misrepresented from the get-go as another icon in the ever continuing "...debate over science and religion." Unfortunately, this is the subtitle of this work, and the reason at least one star was dropped from my rating.

The author continued to equate "anti-evolutionists" with "Fundamentalists" throughout his book, which extended into the last decades of the 20th Century, long after the equation was valid. By this time, several scientists, many without any strong religious beliefs, had poked serious holes in Evolutionary theory, developing a formalized concept called "Intelligent Design." Furthermore, several other scientists, though not willing to dispute macro-evolution overall, had serious reservations about supporting Darwin's Natural Selection mechanism for the development of new species. Thus, Punctuated Equilibrium appeared on the scene, championed by the late Harvard paleontologist, Dr. Stephen Jay Gould, which weakened the theory most often taught in school, and understood by the public, even more.

Unfortunately, the author decided not to include these scientific controversies, perhaps not wanting to "dirty up the water."

But in doing so, he chose to represent the ongoing reluctance of some state and local school boards, some far from the Bible Belt, to teach Darwinism as anything more than a theory, as purely a product of "Fundamentalism."

He probably should have stopped his narrative about a chapter earlier...

In order to be credible to all sides in a highly-partisan cultural war, professor of law and history Edward J. Larson in his book "Summer of the Gods: The Scopes Trial And America's Continuing Debate Over Science and Religion" had to present the facts and nothing but the facts ("so help him God" or not). This is the book's necessary strength and its unfortunate weakness. I would like to have heard more reflection.

Much light could come just from placing the historical scene in a larger context. For example, what connections can be made between the meaninglessness and despair of World War I, the recent Marxist-Leninist revolution, the red scare of the 20's, Darrow's agnosticism and membership in the Communist party, and the fears of an attack on traditional values and beliefs this all must have engendered?

The facts about this "great," or at least highly significant, all-American trial are so often the exactly opposite of the myths that survived so long! Perhaps we now need a anthropologist of culture and religion to analyze how we could go so long believing utter falsehoods, and all without force of propaganda or threat of gulag.

Surely on the deeper issues of the philosophical debate between science and religion as reflected in American culture, Mr. Larson, whose background is exactly in this type of historical study, could lend a hand. Certainly he has done us a great service by his meticulously objective work for this well-deserved Pulitzer Prize winning effort, but there is little philosophical thought to be found.

The Scopes courtroom led to more drama than debate, more chance than justice or toleration. Both sides claimed to win, but all sides actually lost. Both the real trial and the mythic one reflected in the movie "Inherit the Wind" (and other cultural renderings passed down as folklore)--both failed to even satisfactorily debate let alone struggle with the underlying conflicts or seek answers to America's larger quest for clarity of identity.

Neither built toward a consensus. Hence our ongoing crazy cultural wars with Ten Commandments tablets allowed here but not there, all supported by highly reasoned legal arguments on both sides that will all look more like myth and superstition to the next eon--hopefully. Our capitalistic Mark Twainish show trial was mercifully free of the menace of Stalin's show trials of the 30's. Nevertheless, by failing to address the challenges of this chapter in our over-politicized mythic struggle, we neither evolve nor practice true religion.

Nevertheless, as a starting touchstone "Summer of the God's" deserves a place on all our book shelves. It has inspired me to want to read a biography about William Jennings Bryan, and Darrow's autobiography as well.

Summer for the Gods

The echoes of the past continue to reverberate. Although it's been eighty years since the Scopes Trial, the debate over the teaching of the origins of life goes on.
The monumental intellectual battle pitted Williams Jennings Bryan against Clarence Darrow following the indictment and arrest of a Dayton, Tennessee public school teacher for violating a state law forbidding the teaching of evolution.

The controversy focused attention...not much of it favorable... on the South, which was still smarting from the Civil War and Reconstruction.
In "Summer for the Gods: The Scopes Trial and America's continuing Debate over Science " Edward J. Larson takes the reader through the background of the Scopes matter; the involvement of the ACLU, which was seeking a test case at the time; and the role of the Prosecution and Defense. The media (or, the Press at the time) had an important role as well -- the Baltimore Sun's acerbic H.L. Mencken covered the story, and on one day of the trial journalists filed 200,000 words by telegraph. Larson's Pulitzer-prize winning account is an enjoyable and entertaining read. His "afterword," which compares the Scopes matter to the current debate between Science and "Intelligent Design", is especially useful. The recent attempts to restrict academic freedom in Kansas and other jurisdictions illustrate the currency of the debate.

A recent Google search revealed 29,600,000 hits for "intelligent design." There are societies, institutions, and now even a Museum designed to promote Creationism. (Interestingly, William Jennings Bryan founded his own college, Bryan College, to promote his views, much as the late Rev Jerry Fallwell.)

Larson makes ample use of the papers of Bryan, Darrow and other principals in the trial and contemporary news accounts. His book is an entertaining, enlightening, and gracefully-written addition to the literature on the subject.
As another reviewer has noted, the legal background of the story is of particular interest... particularly given than in 1925, many general principles which we take for granted today (for example, the application of the Establishment of Religion Clause to State as well as Federal law ) didn't exist at the time.