First, an emphasis on current research, genomics, and molecular genetics enables students to learn how microbiologists think as they master the discipline's foundational topics. Second, a stunning and consistently executed art program helps students visualize key microbiological processes and structures.
Joan Lyn Slonczewski is an American microbiologist at Kenyon College.
She also writes science fiction that explores biology and space travel under the name Joan Slonczewski. Her books have twice earned the John W. Campbell award for best science fiction novel: The Highest Frontier (2012) and A Door into Ocean (1987).
On page 244 (2nd edition) they mention that plasmids are part of cell's genome while word on the street is they are not. The rest is about 1377 pages of the good stuff.
Another word on the street is, before you tackle this monster, you better grind your chemistry and biology gears.
4 months worth of a college course crammed into the 8 week summer session made reading this quite the effort. Nevertheless, the illustrations were good, and this text contains a vast amount of detail