I took a few introductory courses in biology and had a hard time taking notes and maintaining interest in the texts for those classes. However, I took cell biology using this book and it was amazing how it presents the material. In the beginning chapters it introduces the basics of organic chemistry and types of molecules in an easy to understand structured way. The authors continue by dedicating chapters to DNA replication, translation, and transcription. They also explain the functions of each organelle in a typical cell; then distinguish between plant cells and animal cells and how they differ in the harnessing of energy. My favorite chapters involved reading about glycolysis, the electron transport chain, and photosystems. The book also has chapters dedicated to mitosis, meiosis, the cytoskeletal system, genetic engineering, and cancerous cells. In order to take adequate notes, I found I had to read one section at a time to gather the main points and then reread the section while noting these main points. In order to make use of the concepts of this text, one has to picture the processes being described. Accompanied with the text is a useful CD that has some cool illustrations. There is a youtube video that everyone taking a cell biology class needs to see. Type in "The Inner Life of The Cell" to see a cool Harvard University animated video that puts into perspective such cellular activities. The point of this review is to express my feelings that I had never learned as much from any single biology book as I have from this one.

This book have been very helpful in my studies. The way concepts are graphically represented makes them easy to understand.

My book arrived on time and in brand new shape. It was exactly what I asked for with no problems what-so-ever.

I highly recommend this seller to any one who wants to buy from it because the book came earlier than expected and the price was the cheapest compared to other sellers. Over all, I was very satisfied with my purchase and the book is in great condition.

I highly recommend this seller to any one who wants to buy from it because the book came earlier than expected and the price was the cheapest compared to other sellers. Over all, I was very satisfied with my purchase and the book is in great condition.

Product arrived in perfect condition. Fast shipping, would do business with again! Haven't read the book yet though... haha

This book is jam pack full of information from cover to cover. However, it is quite readalbe for the capable biology student. My biggest complaint is that the vocabulary words are not listed off to the side or defined clearly in the text. Essentially, the vocab is used and bolded in the text. It is then expected that you will look it up later, which takes a fair amount of time. Other than that, this book does a fair job covering a dry subject to most biology students and makes it bearable. The diagrams are helpful, but could be slightly more ergonomic. Overall though, I am pleased with it.

I was satisfied with time it took to receive the book and the book was in excellent condition.

bought essential cell bio for school. excellent. just like in ad. thank you very much!

came as expected..nice, new.
good book for details of biology. figures and pictures sup up the chapters and major sections

Is an read easy and understandable read. Explains all topics very thoroughly yet in a clear concise manner especially for a biology text book.

It's kind of hard to judge a textbook, especially when you're a student. But i can honestly say that this book is very straight forward. The diagrams are great, and especially if you read the diagrams as you're reading the book, they add a lot of depth and diversity to the reading. The text itself is not mundane...you won't fall asleep reading it. The CD it comes with is nice....but i tend not to use it that much...all it is, is just video clips. Overall i'd say this is one of the best, if not THE best, biology book i've used.

HOWEVER! Remember that this IS a bio book and it DOES get a little tedious at points

Great book. Although not a basic book, this text make many aspects of cell biology very clear. I would highly recommend it.

This is probably one of the best cell biology books out there. It's easy to understand, covers all the basics, and the CD included with it has really helpful videos.

The book is decent. To be honest though, reviewing textbooks is kind of funny. Does it matter what I say? I suppose if you're ordering this book because you honestly just have a burning desire to learn about essential cell biology, well... the more power to you. You'll learn it just fine from this book. If you're just buying the book because it's the required text for your college class (like I expect), well yeah, doesn't really matter what I say, does it?

I feel this is a very good textbook for molecular biology rookies as well as for pros wanting to revive their concepts ... Molecular Biology of the Cell could serve as an excellent companion book or rather reference book for this textbook ... the cd provided along with the Essential Cell Biology book is a great tool to understand the way things work ... in short, it is a must book for mol bio students to know what they are doing and to do things better:) It could also serve as a great book for biomedical engineers to grasp more of biology and engineer the concepts better. The book is definitely more simplified (kinda an abridged version) and easier to understand than "Molecular Biology of the Cell". Although, the size of the latter makes it look more formidable for beginners, I must add it is indeed a great reference book for researchers!

I feel this is a very good textbook for molecular biology rookies as well as for pros wanting to revive their concepts ... Molecular Biology of the Cell could serve as an excellent companion book or rather reference book for this textbook ... the cd provided along with the Essential Cell Biology book is a great tool to understand the way things work ... in short, it is a must book for mol bio students to know what they are doing and to do things better:) It could also serve as a great book for biomedical engineers to grasp more of biology and engineer the concepts better. The book is definitely more simplified (kinda an abridged version) and easier to understand than "Molecular Biology of the Cell". Although, the size of the latter makes it look more formidable for beginners, I must add it is indeed a great reference book for researchers!

This text is actually really good for beginners or as a refresher. Full of info and very detailed.

This text is actually really good for beginners or as a refresher. Full of info and very detailed.

After taking my first course in cell biology I discovered a number of things about the subject. 1) Cell Biology is a HARD CLASS! In my class, we covered about 18 or so chapters of material. Tests were based mostly on memorization of both relevant and obscure facts as well as many, many molecular processes. For someone that is pressed for time and tries to cram before tests, there will be problems. 2) It is difficult to understand many of the processes in cell biology without some chemistry background. When I took the class, I was also in organic chemistry 2, but that didn't help much. If I could have done it over again, I would actually take Biochemistry before Cell because processes in Cell Biology are explained briefly and mostly independent of the chemistry involved, which forces the student to memorize information without really understand why these processes occur. 3) In general, Biology is becoming more problem based and in order to understand cell, you need to have solve useful questions.

Based on the inherent difficulties of Cell Biology that I have mentioned, I don't think that this book did much to bridge any of these learning gaps. The molecular processes were explained briefly which was ok, but since there was so many of them, it was still hard to manage. The chemistry of cell biology in this book is poorly explained. Chemical structures are largely discarded in favor of acronyms. Obvisously, acronyms are favored for the long run, but a firm understanding of the chemical structures needs to be understand first. In my opinion, this book relied too much on acroynms.

Finally, the questions in this book were terrible. Some were just inane (Compare signs of life for a rock and a plant) while others were just pointless (Calculate something or the other). Also, there were many problems that I was just clueless to even though I had read the information in the book. These problems asked what would happen if some molecular process was somehow disturbed. Obvisouly, questions of this nature are essential in understanding cell biology, but the book did not provide enough information to come up with a feasible answer. In my opinion, this book should be much more problem based and should have fair problems that are able to be solved, and there should be a student solutions book available that provides clear explanations to all questions.

This book was decent for basic concepts, but not really useful for really understanding the subject matter. I would recommend looking for a different text, even if this is the required text for your class.

I have read a good number of science texts, and this one just doesn't seem to be as good as the others. The explanations are adequate, though not to the level that Marieb's Anatomy and Physiology was or to the extent of Biology by Campbell and Reese. In class, the professor told us to refer to Campbell and to "Molecular Biology of the Cell" for better explanations.

The glossary is incomplete, and often key terms are just nt there. The index suffers from the same trouble, even when the chapters address the topic. Lastly the graphics, just don't seem to be as well planned as those in the texts mentioned above.

I understand that many do not have a choice given that most buy the book as an assigned text. My recommendation, therefore, is to save your old textbooks and to ask that your professor place a copy of Molecular Biology of the Cell on reserve at your school library.

I found this book to be easy to learn from. I used this text for my cell biology class in undergrad. The energy pathways were explained with clarity. I also liked the section on gene technology. I also found The Ultimate Study Guide for Biology: Key Review Questions and Answers with Explanations (Topics: Organization of Living Things & Chemistry of Life, Structure and Function of the Cell and Energy Pathways, Reproduction and Heredity, and Genetics) Volume 1 to be an excellent additional resource for test preparation. The questions and answer format in this guide is very helpful for studying. Both books I highly recommend.

I read this book during the summer prior to me senior year in high school, and literally could not put it down. I read the whole work cover-to-cover in a week.

Going in, my background in biology was an introductory cell biology course and my background in chemistry was an introductory chemistry class. That I had little formal training in the sciences was irrelevant when reading this; it explains all the concepts so clearly that I think even a person with no background in science at all could understand it. The diagrams and photos are well-done and highly pertinent.

This is not to say that this book is only for non-scientists. Indeed, I even used knowledge gleaned from this fantastic book to teach my teachers a thing or two. Perhaps the section on muscle contraction is the best written of all - no other book I have ever seen comes close to this in clarity, and this section was one that I recommended to my Anatomy and Physiology teacher for clarification about a few concepts.

I am soon to be a sophomore in college, and this book continues to inspire me on my path to be a professor (I study chemistry with an emphasis on chemical biology). This book was invaluable even in a rigorous microbiology course, not to mention other introductory courses.

In summary, I rarely leave home for extended periods without this text (literally). If there is ONE BOOK that you should buy for studying cellular and molecular biology, let it be this one (or, if you are so inclined, its larger brother, Molecular Biology of the Cell).

"Essential Cell Biology" by Bruce Alberts literally saved my 1st semester. The course went hard and the lectures were long and boring. And then - I opened the Essential, started reading, and suddenly things got clear for me. I got an A on the test, and now I know my Cell Biology well - all thanks to this book. Strongly recommended!!!

This book contains essential stuff enough for medical students, although not enough for biochemistry or biology students. But this book is still useful because whenever you read the book, you will be inspired to that particular field. It is written not as tedious and complex as those "big" textbooks. Easy to read. Interesting. I highly recommend this textbook.

But if you are looking for every detail in molecular biology, this book is not satisfactory.

This is a beautifully presented book. My students like it enormously, because of the conversational style, the illustrations, and the overall readibility -and this is perhaps the highest aim a textbook can aspire to achieve.

However, I find that the authors have gone too far in their attempt to abridge and simplify their previous opus -Molecular Biology of the Cell (MBOC): some topics are insufficiently or superficially discussed. Also, the style is slightly verbose at times. Finally, I think that the book could benefit from some reorganization.

The following examples illustrate my point.

*Osmosis is given a very brief mention.(p 382).
*The repulsion for anything mathematic continues the tradition started by MBOC. The Nernst equation, is given just a little box in page 393. The Donnan effect doesn't even have a walk-on part.
*The discussion of action potential contains the usual story of the voltage gated K+ channels, when these channels are not found in myelinated mammalian neurons.
*Myelin itself is not even mentioned.
*The discussion on G protein-linked receptors -a key topic- is very superficial.
*Membrane potential is introduced in a rather convoluted fashion. Furthermore, the concept is used several times before it is finally explained.
*Certain sections may leave the reader confused. For example p53 is described as a gene regulatory protein which arrests the cycle when DNA damage occurs (p 580). But when tumor suppressor genes are discussed, only retinoblastoma is given as an example, which would tend to convey the mistaken idea that p53 is not a tumor suppressor gene.

The book excells in didactic qualities by a systematic evolment of the main topic, by preceding each chapter with a keyword like abstract of the chapter topic, by ending each chapter with a list of the presented key concepts and questions which are propperly answered at the end of the book, by a clear print where text runs down on two thirds of the page while the remainder of the page shows an unbelievable number of color illustrations, and by a readable, understandable and precisely written style. Since the book is an introduction into it's field, it will necessarily not cover too intricate details. And certain things are still under research, even seemingly simple ones like: Does the myosion filament in muscle cells really "float" like on p.539? There was a different picture in the PROCNATL, some time ago.

The chapters are: 1.) Introduction to Cells, 2.) Chemical Components of Cells, 3.) Energy, Catalysis, and Biosynthesis, 4.) How Cells Obtain Energy from Food, 5.) Protein Structure and Function, 6.) DNA, 7.) From DNA to Protein, 8.) Chromosomes and Gene Regulation, 9.) Genetic Variation, 10.) DNA Technology, 11.) Membrane Structure, 12.) Membrane Transport, 13.) Energy Generation in Mitochondria and Chloroplasts, 14.) Intracellular Compartments and Transport, 15.) Cell Communication, 16.) Cytoskeleton, 17.) Cell Division, 18.) Cell-Cycle control and Cell Death, 19.) Tissues.

This book is definitely for students at the undergraduate level. It is easy to understand as the authors provide "real life" examples in each particular section. I kind of make this book analogous to the "Books for Dummies Series" in a positive connotation, mind you, since if you have absolutely no clue about cell biology, you ought to get this book. It also comes with a CD-ROM for the "tech savvy" individuals.

I have just started my Introduction to Cellular and Molecular Biology course at Rensselaer Polytechnic Institute in Troy, NY, and already I feel supremely confident in my understanding of the material discussed in class. This textbook is extremely easy to follow, combining authoritative text with well-labeled diagrams and photos as supplement. I have encountered no better textbook than this one.

I recently bought the book "Essential Cell Biology: An Introduction to the Molecular Biology of the Cell" and studied it from cover to cover, including all the questions and answers. It was one of the greatest and most well-organized textbooks I have ever encountered. The language was very fluent, and especially some of the example questions were quite entertaining and witty. I haven't had any education neither in biology nor in molecular biology nor in biochemistry (my major is chemical engineering), still I didn't have any difficulties in understanding all the concepts presented in the book. The knowledge I gained from the book was a great help to me during the "GRE Subject Test in Biochemistry, Cell and Molecular Biology" which I took just yesterday. I am applying to graduate schools in the US for a Ph.D. degree in Molecular Biology or Bioengineering, and the test I took yesterday was crucial for my applications, in which (thanks to Essential Cell Biology) I believe I did quite well for a person without a background in the subject except a two-months-long self-study. This is a great and concise introductory textbook to the molecular biology of the cell, and I highly recommend it to anyone who has an interest in this subject with no or little background.

I have used Essential Cell Biology for my one semester introductory cell biology and found it to be superb!! It's perfect for a one semester undergraduate course, as well as a terrific overview for laymen with a strong interest in how and why cells work. For introductory cell biology courses, nothing on the market comes even close to this text. Like its larger predecessor, Molecular Biology of the Cell, the text is clearly written, informative, and downright interesting, a rare commodity in textbook writing. Once again, James Watson's superb writing style shows through in this book. The numerous illustrations are a superb complement to the text, explaining and reinforcing the concepts presented in the text. In addition to its use as a text for one semester courses, I would also recommend this to interested laypersons who have an interest in how cells work at the molecular level and are not satisfied with the few popular-level books on the topic. Here they will find a gold mine of insights into the marvels of cell structure and function, all of it clearly written and accessable to anyone with a good high school or mediocre college background in basic chemistry and biology. The only drawbacks of this book is the limited suggestions for further readings and the sparse information on the techniques used to study cells. Otherwise, it is a terrific, attractivly presented, superbly written and illustrated book. It is a real asset to all who have an interest in the cell, except for publishers of competing texts, who are likely to lose most of their markets to this excellent book.

I used this book as a studying supplement during the cell biology module of my first-year biology course. It explains key cell biology concepts clearly, thoroughly and concisely. The text is very well written and has wonderful photographs and diagrams throughout. Updated and recent biological and biomedical findings are used to further tie in the concepts of cell biology. Those that prefer a more detailed source of information should look to Molecular Biology of the Cell, but for beginners, Essential Cell Biology is an excellent place to start.