The most up-to-date and comprehensive collection of all terms of this essential field of modern life sciences!
With more than 6000 technical terms, this dictionary reflects the importance of gene technology for present-day biology. Extensive explanations and illustrations accompany the terms, providing admirably clear access to the complexities of this vital discipline. Moreover, the book elucidates the jungle of synonyms, acronyms and swamps of jargon that have frustrated many a researcher.
The multitude of cross-references enables non-specialists and experts alike to understand links to related sciences such as genetics, biotechnology, microbiology and biochemistry. Students, researchers, officials and journalists will soon find it difficult to imagine tackling gene technology without the assistance of this user-friendly dictionary.
There are many reference books in the areas of genetics, molecular biology and biotechnology because of the vast amounts of research being done, the money being invested, and the impact on human health and welfare. There are many good encyclopedias covering this area, e.g. Encyclopedia of Genetics (Four-Volume Set), edited by Sydney Brenner, Jeffrey H. Miller, Jeffrey K. Miller (Academic Press, 2001), but because there is so much information to cover, specialized reference books are important, especially because they are usually faster to update and cover new terms.The cover title of this volume is misleading. The word 'The' is italicized and in red, leading the viewer to think that this is the only dictionary necessary for gene technology. Even the subtitle 'Genomics, Transcriptomics, Proteomics' doesn't completely indicate that the focus of this volume is on nucleic acids, their structure, modification, processing, transfer, and function analysis. Other aspects of biotechnology and genetics are included where they intersect with nucleic acids (information from Preface). If this is the subject area you want covered, then this is an excellent reference book. There are over 6,500 entries (2,500 more than the original edition), and the definitions are clear and complete, with numerous cross-references. The appendix on Restriction Endonucleases is not complete but it is only meant to give a few examples. The listing of relevant databases by subject is very good. The listing of journals in the subject area would be much better if relevant web sites were added. Of course not listing of databases or journals can ever be complete or completely correct because of the nature of the web and publishing.Recommended for academic science libraries with genetics or molecular biology collections. The similarly titled, A Dictionary of Gene Technology Terms by Y.H. Zhang, M. Zhang (CRC Press-Parthenon Publishers 2001) does not really overlap with this volume, because the focus of the Zhang book is genetic engineering and gene manipulationPublic libraries will be better served by An A to Z of DNA Science: What Scientists Mean When They Talk About Genes and Genomes by Jeffrey L. Witherly, Galen P. Perry, Darryl L. Leja (Cold Spring Harbor Laboratory, 2001), The Dictionary of Cell and Molecular Biology, edited by J. M. Lackie, Julian Dow, S. Blackshaw (Academic Press, 1999), or Oxford Dictionary of Biochemistry and Molecular Biology, revised edition edited by A. D. Smith, et.al. (Oxford University Press, 2000. E-Streams 4(9) Sept. 2001
http://www.e-streams.com/es0409/es0409_1451.htm.Reviewer: Margaret Henderson, Consultant,
marghend@optonline.net Copyright 2002 E-Streams Reviews
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