Biology Books

My newly minted 5 year old can't put this book, discovered in a ancient basement bin, down. She cites it daily and is truly inspired to ask WHY and seek answers. Example, we found a rattlesnack skin on a trail and she looked up in this book Why Snake Shed Their Skins. Very powerful for her to be able to link the two together. Each entry is short and concise and serves to demystify every day questions for the curious (little) ones. STRONGLY suggested, find it and treasure it.

I received a copy of this book when I was 6 or 7 years old. I must have read it cover-to-cover 100 times. It started me off on a lifelong love of science and technology. 25 years, 2 M.I.T. degrees and 4 patents later, I'd say this book was among the best money anyone ever spent on me. Really sad to see that it's out of print. Grab one while you can!

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I'm a computer guy working at a biotech and wanted to know more about what the guys in the coats are doing. This book is a very good introduction for those with a science bent.

I especially enjoyed reading about the Bohr model of the atom (which is what I learned in school) only to have it totally dissed after 3/4ths of a page as inadequate!

I don't know how well it works as a class room text (this is night-time reading for me) but for a enjoyable well written text on Biochemistry this is an excellent choice.

This book is one of the pioneer works on the subject, as its publication date shows clearly. Despite its age, it remains as one of the most fascinating introductions to computer chess, and most of the ideas it presents are still valid. Its multiple authors cover all aspects of chess playing, from technical expositions of some of the best programs of that time, to physiological and psychological considerations.

In "A brief history of computer chess tournaments: 1970-1975", we are introduced to the atmosphere of the early tournaments, the diverse friendly matches between US and USSR chess computers, and several US and international championships, with many of the most interesting games fully commented and analyzed.

The next chapter, "Human chess skill" focuses in how does a human player select a move in the game of chess, the role of perception, the search mechanism, visualization, as well as other tipically human aspects such as motivation. Several tests applied to human players ranging from novices to grandmasters are presented and discussed.

After that introspective look at we humans, and our not-so-well understood thought processes, "An introduction to computer chess" begin to shift the focus to the computer, including such basic topics as how to represent the chess board, the moves, the status, how to generate the legal moves, search strategies, position evaluation, so that by the end of the chapter, all necessary foundations are well stablished for the rest of the book.

With Chapter 4, "Chess 4.5 - The Northwestern University chess progam" we begin the most technical part of the book. Here, authors David J. Slate and Lawrence R. Atkin show us with great style the internal workings of their famous chess program, many times world champion, and the one mostly used against IM David Levy for the famous Levy's bet. The details are sufficient to help a lot anyone contemplating the possibility of writing his/her own chess program. Modestly, the authors assume the limitations of their creature, and offer good advice on how it can be incrementally improved.

Chapter 5, "PEASANT: An endgame program for kings and pawns" provides yet another close scrutiny of a chess program, though this time with the important novelty that it is an specialized chess program, one specifically designed for a certain class of very frequent endgames. Monroe Newborn, its author, fully describes the inner workings, and most importantly, produces a set of tests for his program, with commented results.

The next chapter, "Plans, goals, and search strategies for the selection of a move in chess" tries to center on how do human players select good chess moves when having just a few seconds to consider the position (i.e: blitz chess), and then introduces a chess program specifically designed to play speed chess, without recourse to tree searching. This quite intriguing approach more closely mimics the human behaviour, to the point of even producing the same kind of erroneous moves a human player would play at blitz speeds.

As an alternative to the standard alpha-beta search techniques, Larry R. Harris introduces us to "The heuristic search: An alternative to the alpha-beta minimax procedure", where it presents what it considers important pitfalls of that search strategy, fully commented with specific examples, and proposes a new paradigm that addresses each and everyone of them from the start, thus truly directing the search in an intelligent way, as opposed to brute force, so that each aspect of the position can be ascertained as soon as possible, before going to other places in the search tree.

After these mostly technical chapters, in "Man and machine: Chess achievements and chess thinking", professor Eliot Hearst, a member of the Psychology Department at Indiana University, evaluates the present status of computer chess from the perspective of someone very knowledgeable with the game, as he is a rather skilled chess player and columnist. He includes many good practical examples, to make his points even clearer.

The book closes with a number of games played by Chess 4.5 and 4.6 in competitions during 1976, 1977, and 1978, that show a remarkable improvement on the rather pessimistic forecastings most experts agreed upon at that time.

This book shows the state of the art at the end of the 1970's. Though there have been huge changes since then, and tremendous gaps in our understanding have been filled, I still can't recommend this book highly enough. This book was published at the time when the best programs changed over from selective search to brute force. Nowadays we know that brute force is the way to go, but at that time even programmers who were winning tournaments using brute force techniques had little faith in their ultimate viability. The authors's speculation about the roles of search and evaluation is very interesting from the historical perspective.

One chapter of this book is worth the entire price. Slate and Atkins describe Chess 4.5 in one chapter. That chapter remains to this day the best description of an "attack-table" chess engine ever written, though you will need some additional reading to create a modern program on that basis.

This book is a short but fairly in-depth and honest attempt at describing the ins and outs of successfully becoming an assistant professor of biology. I recently used this book to fine-tune my own job application, and found the result to be a resounding success. Topics covered include writing up cover letters, CVs, and teaching and research statements, and etiquette and important people skills for the interview. I found the book to be very helpful in detailing these issues, and was impressed that the book caters to applicants looking for jobs not just in traditional research universities, but also in smaller, teaching-oriented schools. The biggest strengths are: 1) full examples illustrating the main points of the text (e.g., an actual cover letter is included in the section dealing with writing a successful cover letter), and 2) a clear presentation of how search committees think through the job search process. The former is important because, regardless of how much advice a job seeker might receive, nothing beats seeing a successful application package. The latter is important in that it brings home the importance of basic people skills. After all, the people interviewing the job seeker are looking for both a colleague and someone to chat in the halls with on a daily basis. The only real negative to the book as I can see is the chapter dealing with negotiations once an offer is made - I found this chapter to be completely useless in my own job negotiations, and I would go so far as to say the language is quite wishy-washy and indefinite.

This book is well-written, clearly laid out, and actually really fun to read. As someone just beginning the job hunt in academic biology, I'm not sure I would be well equipped to put together an application packet without this tool. I strongly recommend it to all young biologists.

This is indeed THE BOOK for Chlamydomonas research. Our lab copy is in constant use, and we are very careful about lending it out (failure to return it in a timely manner is punishable by racking pipette tips and or autoclaving the trash).
Fortunately, a new edition of this book is in the works. It is my understanding that it will be a comprehensive three volume set.

This book is THE reference on Chlamydomonas, the single celled alga sometimes called "green yeast". The sourcebook contains detailed protocols for working with this organism, as well as comprehensive information about its cell biology, metabolism, etc. The only drawback is that this book is somewhat old, and was written before many of the molecular tools for working with Chlamydomonas were perfected, such as transformation or positional cloning using BAC libraries. Still, anyone interested in Chlamydomonas MUST get this book.

This book is written by a brilliant psychologist and scholar of headache literature, as well as pain literature in general, whose ability to synthesize research and to translate this knowledge into useful information is first rate. His integration and application of biopsychosocial information to headache treatment is state of the art, and obviously influenced by his experience and sensitivity to the needs of both practitioners and patients.

As someone who works in the field of pain psychology, I can tell you that Dr. Borkum's book, Chronic Headaches, is a remarkable accomplishment. He has managed to put into one volume very nearly everything there is to know about headache--from the various types of headache and their associated symptomatologies to the full spectrum of medical and psychological approaches to managing headache pain. Even more astonishing is his thoughtful and comprehensive review of the outcome literature in behavioral medicine treatment research. This is a work that will prove essential to medical and psychological professionals who treat patients with chronic headaches, as well as to motivated patients suffering from chronic headaches who wish to acquaint themselves with the full range of treatment options.

Everyone who is interested in environmental issues, whether it be for a class or for pleasure, should definitely purchase this book! It layers current day topics over the theory of other textbooks. This book is incredibly informative and worth 10 times its cost!!

Theodore D. Goldfarb has once again accumulated a terrific collection of Issues! A must read for anyone interested in a better planet...which should be everyone.

I could not believe that a whole book of practice exams existed. It truly helped me get a 5 on the AP test. Some of the tests were extremely hard, but the others were basically the same level as the real test. Studying Barron's AP review and this practice exam book will guarantee not just a passing score, but a 4 or 5.

These Practice Exams will really get you ready. My son got college credit for both semesters of Biology. As a Zoology major myself, I was impressed with the brevity yet thoroughness of these exams. They really helped him get ready.

This is one of the best books I have ever read. It provides the reader with a wealth and variety of information about the natural history of the area interspersed with brief snippets of information about specific persons of interest, sometimes quotes and/or poems. All this information is presented in a diary, or almanac, form, with each day describing a specific event, sometimes historical, sometimes a natural occurrence (such as a description of the "strawberry moon", which is the full moon for June, close to strawberry time, this year on June 18.) Other "topics" include timely descriptions of the return of swallowtail butterflies and various migrating birds, "behaviors" of periwinkles, seaglass, etc. I look forward each day to reading the item of the day and have so far learned something at each reading. This book is a "must have" for anyone who loves the northeast coast in all its seasons.

Catherine Schmitt is a thoughtful and talented writer. Her portrait of the Gulf of Maine, its flora and fauna, is evocative and enlightening. I highly recommend this book.

As a coastal manager it's really hard to find information that presents good theoretical stuff next to down to earth examples. It's usually one or the other. This book has both right in one spot. This book lives on my desk, not on the bookshelf!

i thoroughly enjoyed this book. content is based on the direction of coastal management and implementation of planning mechanisms around the globe. the text is supported with case studies from locations all around the globe, providing a global analysis. the style of writing is very informative, with exceptional detail - and quoting sources to allow confirmation of the text content. it is quite clear that both authors are extremely active and interested in the field of coastal management, with a 'hands-on' approach taken with each of the case studies included. a nice touch, is the use of images and diagrams to highlight certain aspects, providing ease of understanding - these thoroughly supporting the text. this book takes a step by step approach to introduce the reader to the complex issues and intricacies involved with coastal management and planning, opening the door to the next century. a thoroughly enjoyable read - definitely recommended!!