Genetics: From Genes to Genomes w/ Genetics: From Genes to Genomes CD-ROM

Rating:
Summary: Two thumbs up
Review: I used this text as an undergraduate three years ago. It provided me with a wonderful insight into genetics genomics and introductory molecular biology. The books is highly readable with wonderful diagrams and a marvelous set of probelsm following each chapter. Also note one of the authors Dr. Hartwell is a nobel laureate. I believe a new edition is on the way but I find myself unwilling to part with my favorite genetics book even as a graduate student. The price of the new edition would be especially high like when I bought the 1st edition. I suggest the low budget readers like me to buy used copies of the 1st edition because the prices are dropping fast on used copies. Highly recommended for undergraduates of all levels and as an introductory text for a graduate level genomics course.

Rating:
Summary: Nice textbook--a little thin for the price
Review: I'll try really hard not to rant about how much textbooks cost--but since the only negative part of this review will involve that, I'll get it out of the way: if I have to pay well over a hundred dollars for a required textbook, I want it to be THICK. I want to be able to glean so much knowlege from the book that I walk away with a head two times bigger than it was when I started! When I realized it was written (in part) and contributed to by faculty at the University of Washington (where I earned my BS), I assumed we were assigned this over-priced book simply because they wrote it. As a poor student, it really bothered me...until I read it.

But my rant stops there; the rest of the review is good. I used this book the first year it was published in a class; the text was clear and had a nice mix of review material that kept you up to date. The organization was good, beginning with a brief section on Mendelian genetics, moving to gene regulation, and ending with a bang-up chapter on population genetics and molecular evolution.

I'm hanging on to the book rather than packing it away or selling it back, because I know I still have more to learn. Highly recommended.

Rating:
Summary: Good textbook
Review: The book does a good job of helping the student to understand different concepts of Genetics.

Rating:
Summary: Great diagrams
Review: This book is excellent. It has clear explanations of concepts with excellent diagrams to help you follow along. My professor disagreed with some parts, but aside from those, the text covers everything you need to know about genetics. At the end of each chapter there are numerous study questions that are extremely helpful if you also buy the solution manual. I also enjoyed the cd it came with. The book's website also has lots of vocabulary and practice quizzes. I recommend this book to professors and students of genetics, or to anyone interested in the subject.

Rating:
Summary: biobabe
Review: This text was used in a class that I TAed. Many of the students found the text too detailed and confusing and so they relied mostly on the professor's notes. The text is overly wordy as it describes genetics in detail from a problem solving point of view. There are many problems at the end of each chapter ranging from simple to extremely difficult.

The CD is just plain silly. It tries to be interactive, but the activities are either too easy like the chromosome matching activity that makes `incorrect' noises until you match the correct pair (and really what do you learn from that anyway) or just non-intuitive. I remember playing with one section about genetic markers, and I gave up frustrated with trying to figure out what I was supposed to be doing. Interactive Fly lab is much more useful than this CD. You won't be missing anything if you get a used copy without the CD.

From a graduate student perspective, Part IV of this text: Portraits of Model Eukaryotic Organisms is extremely useful. There is a chapter on each of the most commonly used model organisms: yeast, plant, worm, fly, and mouse that explain a brief history of the use of the organism, how genetics is done in that organism, and what is most useful to study in the organism. When I first started graduate school I found myself reading papers and getting lectures about specific model systems that I had never worked with before and these chapters brought me up to speed quickly.

Rating:
Summary: biobabe
Review: This textbook was helpful and easy to read. It is a nice introductory textbook into genetics for an individual who has yet to take molecular biology or biochemistry. It seems to be just the right length as well; however, it is rather pricy for its thickness. The major issues that I had with this textbook were that there were several errors throughout the text and even more in many of the figures. The figures were wonderful unless you tried thinking about them, at which point, several errors were discovered. For an introductory genetics student, mistakes in figures can be a large problem simply because students often rely on figures to explain new information. I know that their next edition, the 2nd edition, which is now out, will only be better & I look forward to reading it! :)