Biology

by Michael L. Cain, Peter V. Minorsky, Lisa A. Urry, et al.

Book Overview

Each of the eight units reflect the progress in scientific understanding of biological processes at many levels, from molecules to ecosystems. This description may be from another edition of this product.

• Format: Hardcover
• Language: English
• ISBN: 0805368442
• ISBN13: 9780805368444
• Release Date: September 2008
• Publisher: Benjamin-Cummings Publishing Company
• Length: 1267 Pages
• Weight: 7.42 lbs.

Customer Reviews

Great condition

I ordered this book to help brush up on my biology since this upcoming semester I'll have to take a science course, and it's great! I have read a few pages and it helped me jog my memory quite a bit!

Wrong Edition Received

I ordered the 11th edition and got the 3rd edition sent instead. Not sure if it's a backorder issue but not impressed after having so many good experiences

I have a letter and pictures in the book.

Hi I have a letter that looks very important to someone and pictures that in a envelope that was inside of my book that I Purchased if anyone knows who they belong to I will gladly send them back. I don't know any other way to contact anyone to say anything about them. thank you.

Required book

Much less cost than retail - very good condition - received fast and used throughout year

Biology Book

Easy comfortable transaction - shipped quickly. Item in the condition as listed. Thanks.

So good you can read it for fun!

This book is written in such an interesting and easy to follow manner that you could literally read it for entertainment. Many times I forgot to take notes because the richness, depth and flow of the text made me feel like I was reading a novel instead of a text. This by no means implies that the book is simple. In fact, it probably contains more, if not equal, info than it's competitors. The main difference is in how it presents this information. Go with this book for biology, it'll turn you into that bio nerd that you've always wanted to become!

Impressive depth of explanation

I'm working through an earlier edition of this book (because it was used and cheap) and am very impressed by it. There are a lot of excellent introductory science textbooks, but what distinguishes this one in my mind is the author's relentless effort to deepen his explanations. You don't just learn that some reaction occurs in the cell. You learn why it occurs, what its antecedents are, what their antecedents are, how feedback reactions in the cell stimulate or inhibit the reaction, and what the mechanisms of action are. At each point where the reader may be thinking, "That's interesting, but why does that happen?", all he need do is read on and very likely find that Campbell will ask, and answer, his question. Explanation must always come to a stop. But Campbell pushes his explanations out to the frontiers of our knowledge. His explanations stop not where he thinks the student is too unsophisticated to continue, but where either there is no more known, or where it would be impossible to say more and still cover the whole subject of biology in one book. This approach shows great respect for the student. It treats the student as an intelligent person who is interested, motivated, and able to learn. It is the standard approach for more advanced texts, but it's not always found in introductory books. It's a considerable achievement to be able to write about a highly technical subject this deeply and this thoroughly, and still put it in terms that the beginning student can understand. The book is also very well produced. There are excellent illustrations, a useful glossary, an index, and many photo-micrographs. Even in the illustrations, Campbell treats the reader as a serious student - providing thorough explanations and labeling each microscope photo to indicate how it was made (light, scanning electrons, transmissive electrons). I can't say what's on the CD ROM because I haven't seen it. But if it's as good as the rest of the visual material, it will be very good indeed. I heartily recommend this book to anyone who wants to learn the science of Biology.

This is NOT a textbook - this is BIOLOGY!

I'm a biology student from Germany, main subject is genetics. Really, I can't understand all the discussion about the book, if you take it as it is - this book tells you about BIOLOGY!It's NOT a detailed textbook, which - if including all the topics mentioned in Campbell - definitely would have 100.000 pages and more!! It's NOT a textbook about biochemistry, nor about genetics, nor about any other special subject!It IS a wonderful illustrated (even in the german version), colourful, widespread and didactical brilliant written book about its topic: biology.I bought the book and look upon it with a crying eye, because I'm not able to read it in an appropriate time, I'm quite busy with exams and the book is not useful for preparation for diploma or other university examinations. But there's something I learned: as a student you learn so many things in detail out of more or less sterile books, so it might be possible that you lose the thread to the real beauty your subject consists of! What means detail without the whole? It feels good, it really feels good to reflect about the deep beauty and expanse of biology with this book; just take an hour or two a week, put your Stryer, Voet, Alberts, Griffiths and whatever textbook DOWN and open the Campbell. You will see, you breath again. And you'll get some power back - for studying the real detailed things. ...