Molecular Biology of the Cell (Sixth Edition) by Bruce Alberts Alexander D. Johnson Julian Lewis David Morgan Martin Raff Keith Roberts Peter Walter

by Bruce Alberts

Biological research is in an explosive phase, driven by a new awareness of the basic unity of all life forms. Today, the key to a problem about neurons, plant cells, or cancer may lie in research on yeasts, frogs, or flies. More than ever before, molecular genetics is showing us how to recognize and exploit such connections and is forcing us to reflect on the ancient origins of the components from which we are made. In surveying cell biology, one does not know whether to marvel more at the endless variety of living systems or at the fundamental similarities in the mechanisms by which all cells operate.

Genres: Biology, Science, Textbooks, Nonfiction, Reference, Medicine, Biography

Unknown Binding

First published January 1, 1983

About the author

Bruce Michael Alberts (born April 14, 1938, in Chicago, Illinois) is an American biochemist and the Chancellor’s Leadership Chair in Biochemistry and Biophysics for Science and Education, emeritus at the University of California, San Francisco. He has done important work studying the protein complexes which enable chromosome replication when living cells divide. He is known as an original author of the "canonical, influential, and best-selling scientific textbook" Molecular Biology of the Cell, and as Editor-in-Chief of Science magazine.

Alberts was the president of the National Academy of Sciences from 1993 to 2005. He is known for his work in forming science public policy, and has served as United States Science Envoy to Pakistan and Indonesia. He has stated that "Science education should be about learning to think and solve problems like a scientist—insisting, for all citizens, that statements be evaluated using evidence and logic the way scientists evaluate statements." He is an Honorary Fellow of St Edmund's College, Cambridge.

Reviews

[Bernhard · Rating 4 out of 5]

Why read the bible if you could read this instead?

[Maria · Rating 3 out of 5]

Great figures. My biggest problem with this text is that it is really heavy. I actually dropped it and broke two toes.

I should mention, the 3 stars is not due to the heaviness...the figures are great but I found the order of chapters a little awkward and the descriptions varied greatly. Some were easy for students to understand and some sent my students running to other books or to my office for help.

[R · Rating 5 out of 5]

In my opinion, the most worthwhile book anyone can own. The culmination of thousands of lifetimes of work. Comprehensible and complete.

[Nu Jahat Jabin · Rating 4 out of 5]

রিয়েল লাইফ হরর বুক!!!

কঠিন, দূর্বোধ্য, বিশাল বিশাল সেন্টেস যেটার শুরু কই আর শেষ কই বুঝা যায় না!!! বইটা পড়ে একবারে কিছু বুঝা যাবে এই আশা করা বোকামি, একটা বইকে যত ভাবে বোধের অগম্য করা যায় করেছে। -_-

কঠিন কঠিন শব্দ (মিনিমাম ৩ হাজার জি আর ই শব্দ আছে) । টপিক সব কাছাকাছি এক্সামে চায় এক জিনিস লিখে আসি আর আরেকটা, শুধুমাত্র টপিকে ঘোল খেয়ে ।সর্বোপরি আমার মত নিরীহ বিদ্যার্থীর পয়েন্ট কমানো ছাড়া কাজে লাগে না!!!
ইহা এমনি এক বই যেখান থেকে টিচাররাও প্রশ্ন প্যাচানোর চিন্তা করেন না!!!তাতেও উনিশ বিশ কিছু হয় না!!
আশা করি এই ইয়ারের পর এই বই আর পড়তে হবে না

সেল সিগনালিং নামে অতিবাজে এক টপিক এইখান থেকে এই বার পড়তে হচ্ছে। পরীক্ষার আগের রাতে যে অনুভুতিটা কাজ করে তা হলে ইস যদি ব্যাটা গুলার মাথার চুল ছিড়ে দিয়ে আসতে পারতাম!!

আফসোস হইল এই বইকে ১/২ রেটিং দেবার মত দুঃসাহস নাই মাথায় যথেষ্ট পরিমান ঘিলু থাকলেই এই বই লিখা সম্ভব। যা অবস্থা সারাজীবন জেনেটিক ইঞ্জিনিয়ারিং এ পড়ে থাকলেও এই বইয়ের ১ পৃষ্ঠা লেখার ক্ষমতা নাই! তাই ৪রেটিং দিয়ে দিলাম। খুব সম্ভবত বায়োলজিক্যাল সাবজেক্টে (বিশেষত সেল কমিউনিকেশন, ডেভল্পমেন্টাল বায়োলজি, রিজেনারেশন বায়োলজি) এই বইটার কোন বিকল্প নাই তাই এর বদলে যে সোজা সাপ্টা কিছু পড়ব তার ও কোন উপায় নাই।

[Anne · Rating 5 out of 5]

This is both a fantastic introduction to cell biology and a wonderful resource - it's really a foundation text. The writing is lucid and the illustrations are wonderful. Also, there's enough introduction to higher level science to make it possible to read journals and not be utterly gobsmacked.

[James · Rating 5 out of 5]

The most awesome science textbook I have ever read. I *loved* The Cell, and I loved my physics, and college biology books. This book actually changed me. It was worth studying to look at the world completely differently forever after.

[Agustina Dapueto (Agus The Reader) · Rating 3 out of 5]

Biology is the love of my life, so I loved the content even though I had to study for an exam from this book, which makes the reading experience a little more tedious. That takes me to my next point, as a student I found that I didn't really like the organization and the general structure of the chapters. That issue led to repetitive paragraphs and confusing sections which is not the best thing to happen when you're studying for a test because the key to properly understanding biology is the link there is between one function and the other and how all that is explained by things we can see at molecular level and I don't think this book gave much importance to those links.
Apart from that, the explenations were clear and I'm pretty sure I would have enjoyed it a lot more in other circumstances.

[Nina Jaquelle · Rating 5 out of 5]

By tagging this book as 'read' I am not implying that I read the whole mass of 1616 pages... :)I used it for chapters that were loosely explained in our lecture notes to enhance my understanding of the subject. The Cell is a great reference book with a surprisingly interesting narrative and super helpful pictures, diagrams, sketches etc. As a med student I also liked the fact that the topics were explained very generally at first before the authors delved into details, which spared me loads of time and self-pity. Anyway - a great tribute to cell biology and a must read (or at least check out) for science students!

[Le Phuong · Rating 5 out of 5]

The best textbook I've ever owned and read, still refer to it once in a while if I want to go back to basic concepts even though I'm reading journal review and articles on daily basis now. The illustrations area carefully curated.

[Gnul1nux · Rating 5 out of 5]

Such a readable text is a joy and a rarity.

[Natalia · Rating 5 out of 5]

La biblia para todo biólogo!!!!!!!!!

[Irini Gergianaki · Rating 5 out of 5]

Comprehensible, complete, great figures. Introduction to molecular biology for biomedical sciences.

[Barry · Rating 5 out of 5]

The biology professor who recommended it to me summarized it as follows: "Whenever there's a cell biology issue where I want a 'Scientific American' level summary of current research, this the book I turn to." It is gorgeous.

The only downside is that this is not a textbook necessarily suitable for an evolutionary molecular biology course. Mutations are covered well, but not as well as (say) the DNA repair mechanism. Still, a very accessible textbook that written well enough to be read cover to cover.

[Rob · Rating 5 out of 5]

I learned a lot from this book. I give it a 5 because it is a great paper weight. No, really; it's a tremendous resource, and books like this are about all I've read between 2000 and 2008.

[William Bies · Rating 5 out of 5]

Without a doubt, molecular biology in the twenty-first century figures as the crown jewel of the natural sciences – for we are beginning not only to understand the material constitution of our world and the operation of its basic physical laws, as exemplified in the large by celestial mechanics – paradigmatic of Newtonian science and in the small by atomic physics and quantum chemistry, but also to lift the veil of its greatest mystery, life itself. The amount that cell biologists have learned ever since the discovery of the double helix structure of DNA in 1953 by James Watson, Francis Crick and Rosalind Franklin is stupendous already, with no end in sight. We have cracked the genetic code and deciphered the functioning of most organelles, among other things. The bewildered student could scarcely do better than to refer to what is, at around 1,500 pages – the index alone occupies fifty pages –, a truly a monumental standby textbook written by a team of authors headed by Bruce Alberts, Molecular Biology of the Cell (W.W. Norton, first published in 1983 and now in its seventh edition).

The first part starts out with a review of cell biology, citing the universal features of every known cell and a description of their functioning in terms of free energy usage. The diversity of genomes is exemplified by the tree of life comprising bacteria, archaea and eucaryotes. Then a review of cellular chemistry and biosynthesis follows. As one could expect, a lot of time is spent on the structure of proteins and DNA. Just to single out a representative handful of topics that Alberts et al. treat exhaustively, there are enzymes and catalysis, metabolism and the citric acid cycle, the organization of the genetic code, its transcription and translation by the ribosome, DNA repair, packing of DNA into a condensed phase that enables it to fit inside the cell, gene regulation, cell reproduction, membranes and transport across them, chemiosmotic transduction in mitochondria, intracellular and extracellular signaling, vesicles and intracellular transport and the immune system.

A mere high-level listing of a sampling of subjects covered such as this cannot do justice to all the admirable features of Alberts’ text. In every case, the exposition of a process involves not just a summary of its purpose and how it functions, but names the individual molecular species that participate in it and outlines the mechanism by which they interact, where known, which is most often the case. Well designed schematic figures, diagrams, tables and photographs illustrate in pictures what is said in the text and considerably facilitate understanding. Confronted with such an overwhelming wealth of material, we can only call out a few characteristic and particularly striking points in the authors’ exposition:

1) How DNA polymerase binds to the double helix and copies the codons to a developing strand of messenger RNA. The actual procedure is far more complicated than this rapid verbal description suggests, since before the polymerase can do its work there need to be special proteins to open up the DNA helix ahead of the replication fork, cooperative protein binding is required to straighten out the DNA chain so that the polymerase can travel along it, and several proofreading mechanisms have to be in play in order to guarantee sufficient fidelity of replication. The binding of DNA polymerase is also regulated by several mechanisms of genetic control, which receive explanations in a fair amount of detail.

2) A step-by-step account of the operation of the ribosome whose fine-grained structure has recently been solved: how messenger RNA binds to the ribosome substrate and how the transfer RNA is brought into juxtaposition with it so that the right amino acid residue corresponding to the codon can be attached to the growing polypeptide chain. Not only can the process be spelled out in atomic-level detail, but there is some understanding of how error correction works to ensure high fidelity.

3) How photosynthesis occurs – collection of the infalling light inside the chloroplast, conversion of the photon’s energy into a resonant state of the chlorophyll and its transfer from the antenna complex to the reaction center, where a weak electron donor is promoted to a strong one.

As to format, every chapter starts out with a high-level introduction, then enters into a review of basic concepts followed by extensive treatments of every major aspect of the topic, illustrated by numerous diagrams and many side panels going into details. Keywords are printed in bold type when they first appear, the longer sections are broken in subsections with helpfully descriptive headings and end with a summary in bold italics. Appended to every chapter is an organized bibliography giving references by topic to the original literature. As to level, there is little if any mathematics and anyone capable of passing organic chemistry in college will find no difficulty in following the explanations. Though not strictly a prerequisite, a knowledge of modern chemistry at the level of Oxtoby’s Principles of Modern Chemistry (just reviewed by us here) would be most helpful to aid a full comprehension.

Amazing and thought-provoking, this text can heartily be recommended to any genuine lover of nature. The main impression one draws from this work will be that of layer upon layer of staggering complexity in the workings of the cell. Saddening to reflect that, probably, in the main it must be studied laboriously by hard-pressed undergraduates seeking to pass their examinations rather than pored over eagerly by contemplators of creation. For one must simply marvel at nature’s inventiveness:

The heavens declare the glory of God,
the vault of heaven proclaims his handiwork,
day discourses of it to day,
night to night hands on the knowledge.
(Psalm 19:1-2)

If perchance the psalmist were alive today, surely he would have to recompose his poem so as to highlight cell biology as well!

[Rohit · Rating 5 out of 5]

Must read book for all undergraduate Cell Molecular Biology students. Very simple representation of fundamental concepts. It also contains good question bank. Good content, Simple Language, Clear and elaborated images, overall The Best.

[Frederico · Rating 4 out of 5]

It is a really nice book. Enable you to understand not so basic cell functions.

[David]

As recommended by Alan Kay to learn about systems

[Anna Diaz]

Celebrating that Marina Freijo joined GoodReads by remembering this "light" masterpiece

[Kyle · Rating 5 out of 5]

Definitely a long textbook, but it is full of very interesting information on molecular biology. It is definitely dry, but it has a lot of very useful illustrations to go with its explanations and will do an excellent job of teaching you how to understand molecular biology and the lingo used in such research papers.

I found it to be useful after studying some chemistry and organic chemistry to see how it is utilized in a more holistic way with our understanding of cells. If you want a reference work, this book is also pretty comprehensive for a collegiate level understanding of the subject.

[Tristan Young · Rating 5 out of 5]

My mentor recommended this to me. The figures are extremely helpful and the writing for the most part is easy to follow. I referenced and read most of this in grad school (contrasting almost no reading in undergrad). I preferred reading as my main way to study for this in grad school. My professor’s presentations were basically the figures in order anyway. I noticed it helped me in my other coursework as well, especially TAing intro bio 1.

[Mohammad Al Refaei · Rating 5 out of 5]

A great introduction to cell biology, very comprehensive and lucid. I use it to understand any aspect of cell biology and I would recommend it to anyone keen to acquire general knowledge in this very important science field.

I use it as a resource that I seek out when I am faced with some sort of problem but not as a whole-book-read.

[Veronica - I need a husband, to have a fancy last name]

dlaczego mam to w recommendations?
DO I LOOK LIKE-
db let's leave it without an answer
ALE NO KURDE
ZOSTAWCIE MNIE Z TYM BIOLMOLEM, GENETYKĄ I INNYMI PASKUDNYMI RZECZAMI, KTÓRE PSUJĄ STUDIA
it's not that hard goodreads. I'm a cardiology and pulmonology girlie z masochistycznymi wyskokami w kierunku soru.
nie bądź jak quiz apropos specki.

[Nasir · Rating 4 out of 5]

Gold-standard molecular biology textbook; however, I was required to consult additional resources, such as contemporary articles, for further elaboration on particular concepts. I will forever actively reference this textbook during future studies, as the figures and some elaborations are especially phenomenal! If anyone would like, I created an anki deck for the first ~12 chapters.

[Lana Wolfgang · Rating 2 out of 5]

Would not recommend.

[Maya · Rating 3 out of 5]

מסביר פחות טוב מהספר השני אבל עדיין יותר טוב מהמרצה שלי וקיבלתי ציון סבבה במבחן אז בסדר

[Zardoshti Amirreza · Rating 5 out of 5]

It is the fantastic cellular book for scientist.........

[George Garkov · Rating 5 out of 5]

Много увлекателна и прецизно написана книга. Албертс ме спечели с това, че не се впуска в протяжни и сложни плетеници от думи, без да изпада същевременно в смехотворно популяризаторски стил или да описва някаква концепция по погрешен начин (рисковете на свръхопростяването).

Забелязах, че докато я четях, в главата ми изникваха едни или други въпроси, на които Албертс отговаряше на следващите страници. Той не просто се стреми да ти "налее нещо в главата" (стандартна практика, за съжаление, при българските преподаватели по природни науки), но и да ти обясни как една идея се извежда. В 11 глава (може да варира в изданията) например има накратко описан път на извеждане на уравнението на Нернст, което се прилага в невронауките. В този смисъл книгата може да се чете и от хора с гимназиална подготовка, но ако знаете висша математика, вероятно ще може да осмислите и главите за това как да правите експерименти.

Ще е прекрасно един ден да я преведат и на български, защото наистина си заслужава да се прочете от повече хора...

[Domika · Rating 4 out of 5]

Některé pasáže se čtou tězče. Vše je napsáno jako 'pohádka' a ne jako učebnice. Občas je potřeba přečíst více různých kapitol pro detailní pochopení daného tématu. Neopakuje základy, staví už na lepších znalostech čtenáře.

[Clara · Rating 5 out of 5]

Yes, I am including the textbook that I poured over to finish this Cell Biology Capstone class. My tears are permanently embedded within it… 5 stars