Guide to Microlife

Rating:
Summary: Approx 200 good colour photos of major species
Review: An excellent book for the amateur scientist or middle/high school students. Good colour photos make identification fairly easy and stimulate further exploration. One major omission is a description of the habits of the various species. `What does it feed on ?` Enquiring students want to know, and it would be helpful to have all the basic information in a single book.

Rating:
Summary: It is a thorough book.
Review: I liked this book because it contains information about many microorganisms. If you want to know exactly what you are looking at under the microscope, this book is for you. It is easy to find certain species by using the front pages of the book and the side because the four sections are color-coded.

Rating:
Summary: An excellent photographic guide to use with students.
Review: I teach biology but my background is not micro. I loved this book because it allowed me to help students identify 90% of the specimens found in pond water. It has a "where to look for" and "what to look for" section for each organism and also interesting facts. Another useful section is the appendix describing collection techniques. I recommend it for teachers of secondary students.

Rating:
Summary: The Guide to Microlife
Review: I went looking for a good reference book for teaching my high school students about the "lower" Kingdoms (Monera, and Protista). This is an exceptional book for just that purpose. The organization is good, there are lots of excellent photos and diagrams to assist students with identifications. The simplicity of the book in terms of "just enough information" is what makes it such a valuable reference. I would highly recommend it for any science classroom.

Rating:
Summary: The Guide to Microlife
Review: I went looking for a good reference book for teaching my high school students about the "lower" Kingdoms (Monera, and Protista). This is an exceptional book for just that purpose. The organization is good, there are lots of excellent photos and diagrams to assist students with identifications. The simplicity of the book in terms of "just enough information" is what makes it such a valuable reference. I would highly recommend it for any science classroom.

Rating:
Summary: An excellent photographic guide to use with students.
Review: Those of us who love looking at critters under a microscope definitely needed a book like this, a field guide to freshwater microfauna. This book provides stunningly beautiful photographs, useful hints on how and where to find the organisms and how to prepare them for observation, and so-so pen-and-ink sketches of the organisms. My main complaint is that the book doesn't go far enough and doesn't tell us enough. This is mainly noticeable in the tables where "Other Information" is provided along with each organism pictured. The information given is usually only the size of the organism, which is moderately useful (my microscope has no measuring device attached and I imagine most amateurs have the same problem), and occasionally another comment. Much more information should go here. For example, under Dero, the common freshwater Oligochaete, there is no mention of its ciliated anal gills, one of its most distinctive characteristics. A few comments about how to distinguish organism A from similar organisms B, C, and D would be very useful. In the planarian section, the drawings and information provided are too sketchy to be helpful. I have found about five freshwater turbellarians in the water here on Guam that I would love to identify, and I found I couldn't use this chart at all. So, this book is a good start, a good beginning, and in the next edition I would like to see a lot more organisms and a lot more information about the organisms!