they say on the title "an excellent book for beginners and occasional practioners", 19 Jun 2007
... and I agree. This is a book for molecular biologist who want to analyse their data using bioinformatics tools. I would prefer Baxevanis/Oullette "Bioinformatics: A Practical Guide to the Analysis of Genes and Proteins", however, if this is too expensive for you than this "Bioinformatics for Dummies" is the second best choice. Layout and index is a bit more confused but it covers most stuff you will need.

A word of warning: if you want to learn how the programs work, you have to look for a different type of book, e.g. "Biological Sequence Analysis: Probabilistic Models of Proteins and Nucleic Acids" by R. Durbin, Sean R. Eddy, Anders Krogh, and Graeme Mitchison or "Algorithmic Aspects of Bioinformatics" by Hans-Joachim Bockenhauer and Dirk Bongartz.

Clear and informative, 26 Dec 2005
So much of the information is this field (and indeed some of the applications which have been developed) seems almost intentially convoluted and difficult to understand. This book gives a very good overview of some of the more common programs that one will need to use if one is starting bioinformatics research in a way that is practical and easy understand. Despite the title, the authors have done some good work in the field (I use Notredame's T-Coffee alignment program often) and are credible authorities in this area.

Physics and computer science genius Stephen Wolfram, sets his sights on a daunting goal: understanding the universe. A New Kind of Science is a gorgeous, 1,280-page tome more than a decade in the making. With patience, insight, and self-confidence to spare, Wolfram outlines a fundamental new way of modelling complex systems.

On the frontier of complexity science since he was a boy, Wolfram is a champion of cellular automata--256 "programs" governed by simple non-mathematical rules. He points out that even the most complex equations fail to accurately model biological systems, but the simplest cellular automata can produce results straight out of nature--tree branches, stream eddies, and leopard spots, for instance. The graphics in A New Kind of Science show striking resemblance to the patterns we see in nature every day.

Wolfram wrote the book in a distinct style meant to make it easy to read, even for non-techies; a basic familiarity with logic is helpful but not essential. Readers will find themselves swept away by the elegant simplicity of Wolfram's ideas and the accidental artistry of the cellular automaton models. Whether or not Wolfram's revolution ultimately gives us the keys to the universe, his new science is absolutely awe-inspiring. --Therese Littleton

they say on the title "an excellent book for beginners and occasional practioners", 19 Jun 2007
... and I agree. This is a book for molecular biologist who want to analyse their data using bioinformatics tools. I would prefer Baxevanis/Oullette "Bioinformatics: A Practical Guide to the Analysis of Genes and Proteins", however, if this is too expensive for you than this "Bioinformatics for Dummies" is the second best choice. Layout and index is a bit more confused but it covers most stuff you will need.

A word of warning: if you want to learn how the programs work, you have to look for a different type of book, e.g. "Biological Sequence Analysis: Probabilistic Models of Proteins and Nucleic Acids" by R. Durbin, Sean R. Eddy, Anders Krogh, and Graeme Mitchison or "Algorithmic Aspects of Bioinformatics" by Hans-Joachim Bockenhauer and Dirk Bongartz.

Clear and informative, 26 Dec 2005
So much of the information is this field (and indeed some of the applications which have been developed) seems almost intentially convoluted and difficult to understand. This book gives a very good overview of some of the more common programs that one will need to use if one is starting bioinformatics research in a way that is practical and easy understand. Despite the title, the authors have done some good work in the field (I use Notredame's T-Coffee alignment program often) and are credible authorities in this area.

Not very new, not very interesting, 06 May 2008
I had been looking forward to reading this book for ages, but am very disappointed.

Most of it is not very new at all, the prose is long winded and tedious to read, a lot of page space is wasted in wide borders and excessive line spacing, and I really don't see the point. I'd sell my copy, but I doubt it's even worth the cost of the postage.

I only gave it two stars in case there is something interesting in there, given the other achievements of the author, but I missed it.


Fascinating ideas, 19 Oct 2006
Wolfram is a British Physicist who developed the Mathematica software. In writing this hefty volume (1200 pages), he has been criticised for failing to adequately acknowledge other authors' contributions to the field of cellular automata. Certainly he has a tendency towards an irritating, self congratulatory style at times, but working through this hefty volume, one certainly cannot fail to acknowledge a huge intellect at work. I strongly recommend this book as it is readable (but not without some effort) by a non-mathematical audience, has wonderful images of cellular automata and presents a range of challenging and fascinating ideas across a broad spectrum of science. Woolfram also proposes and argues a case for a new fundamental law of nature - the principle of computational equivalence which has met with a varied reception in the scientific community. It appears to me, that some of the criticisms of this work may have be driven by Woolfram's failure to acknowledge the shoulders he has stood on as well as his decision to opt for a commercial publication path rather than through peer review in published scientific journals. Personally, I found the most interesting parts of the book were in the field of cellular automata as models of biological systems. The chapter on perception and anlaysis and in his explanatory model of apparent human free will.

Interesting but ultimately flawed, 01 Feb 2006
Perhaps the biggest frustration when reading the book is the total lack of references to other peoples work. Wolfram explains his reasoning for this but it gives what could be a classic work a hollow feeling because you do not see the work in context and it is hard to judge it against what was done before. His case would have been much more credible with the references and this would have made it seem a more informed and less partial work.

The later parts of the book and his arguments regarding computational equivalence are very hard to penetrate and again this could have been improved if he had looked for other sources. His idea ia an important one as it underpins why we do science and how we should do science when we deal with complexity where simulation plays a vital role in improving our understanding. This will be a debate that will go on for some time.

Pretty pictures, dull prose, 26 Feb 2005
As someone with a scientific background but no specific knowledge of the subject of this book, I was not really convinced that it presented any new ideas that I had not come across (at least hinted at) in other popular science books. However, that is a difficult conclusion to reach, because Wolfram's undisciplined and badly structured prose style compares extremely poorly to most other popular science writers, and I confess to skipping large chunks. I'm sure a more talented communicator could have given a pithy and entertaining exposition of the main ideas in this book in 50-100 pages.

An interesting quote from the Institute of Physics review of the book: "Those who are familiar with the field will find it alarming to see page after page of results - bearing a striking similarity to previously published work - respresented as Wolfram's personal scientific revelation." The lack of acknowledgement of others is indeed extremely annoying.

I would not recommend that anyone shells out for this book if they can borrow it or get a cheap second hand copy (no, I'm not trying to flog mine on Amazon!).

The vanity outweighs the science, 02 Dec 2004
There are only 2 salient points about this book;

1. There is no "new kind of science" in the book, but rather a collection of very interesting interactions between different simple automata and their limited environments. The book could easily have been the size of an article in Scientific American (for example) and lost none of the essential meaning.

2. The author is *unbelievably* proud of his achievement. This will put any true scientist off. It's not fun to read, having to skip the pages and endless pages of self-congratulatory nonsense to find the occasional nugget of scientific analysis. Almost every paragraph talks about how long he has been doing it (who cares?), how radically he has changed the focus of other sciences (yet to be demonstrated) or how clever he is (also uncertain).

The pictures are nice, and I'm sure many a graduate degree will be pursuing what I'm sure will be fertile ground in this area, but I shall not soon forget the ordeal of trudging through his ego to get there.

It does look impressive on a bookshelf, but I'm hoping none of my guests have actually read it.

they say on the title "an excellent book for beginners and occasional practioners", 19 Jun 2007
... and I agree. This is a book for molecular biologist who want to analyse their data using bioinformatics tools. I would prefer Baxevanis/Oullette "Bioinformatics: A Practical Guide to the Analysis of Genes and Proteins", however, if this is too expensive for you than this "Bioinformatics for Dummies" is the second best choice. Layout and index is a bit more confused but it covers most stuff you will need.

A word of warning: if you want to learn how the programs work, you have to look for a different type of book, e.g. "Biological Sequence Analysis: Probabilistic Models of Proteins and Nucleic Acids" by R. Durbin, Sean R. Eddy, Anders Krogh, and Graeme Mitchison or "Algorithmic Aspects of Bioinformatics" by Hans-Joachim Bockenhauer and Dirk Bongartz.

Clear and informative, 26 Dec 2005
So much of the information is this field (and indeed some of the applications which have been developed) seems almost intentially convoluted and difficult to understand. This book gives a very good overview of some of the more common programs that one will need to use if one is starting bioinformatics research in a way that is practical and easy understand. Despite the title, the authors have done some good work in the field (I use Notredame's T-Coffee alignment program often) and are credible authorities in this area.

Not very new, not very interesting, 06 May 2008
I had been looking forward to reading this book for ages, but am very disappointed.

Most of it is not very new at all, the prose is long winded and tedious to read, a lot of page space is wasted in wide borders and excessive line spacing, and I really don't see the point. I'd sell my copy, but I doubt it's even worth the cost of the postage.

I only gave it two stars in case there is something interesting in there, given the other achievements of the author, but I missed it.


Fascinating ideas, 19 Oct 2006
Wolfram is a British Physicist who developed the Mathematica software. In writing this hefty volume (1200 pages), he has been criticised for failing to adequately acknowledge other authors' contributions to the field of cellular automata. Certainly he has a tendency towards an irritating, self congratulatory style at times, but working through this hefty volume, one certainly cannot fail to acknowledge a huge intellect at work. I strongly recommend this book as it is readable (but not without some effort) by a non-mathematical audience, has wonderful images of cellular automata and presents a range of challenging and fascinating ideas across a broad spectrum of science. Woolfram also proposes and argues a case for a new fundamental law of nature - the principle of computational equivalence which has met with a varied reception in the scientific community. It appears to me, that some of the criticisms of this work may have be driven by Woolfram's failure to acknowledge the shoulders he has stood on as well as his decision to opt for a commercial publication path rather than through peer review in published scientific journals. Personally, I found the most interesting parts of the book were in the field of cellular automata as models of biological systems. The chapter on perception and anlaysis and in his explanatory model of apparent human free will.

Interesting but ultimately flawed, 01 Feb 2006
Perhaps the biggest frustration when reading the book is the total lack of references to other peoples work. Wolfram explains his reasoning for this but it gives what could be a classic work a hollow feeling because you do not see the work in context and it is hard to judge it against what was done before. His case would have been much more credible with the references and this would have made it seem a more informed and less partial work.

The later parts of the book and his arguments regarding computational equivalence are very hard to penetrate and again this could have been improved if he had looked for other sources. His idea ia an important one as it underpins why we do science and how we should do science when we deal with complexity where simulation plays a vital role in improving our understanding. This will be a debate that will go on for some time.

Pretty pictures, dull prose, 26 Feb 2005
As someone with a scientific background but no specific knowledge of the subject of this book, I was not really convinced that it presented any new ideas that I had not come across (at least hinted at) in other popular science books. However, that is a difficult conclusion to reach, because Wolfram's undisciplined and badly structured prose style compares extremely poorly to most other popular science writers, and I confess to skipping large chunks. I'm sure a more talented communicator could have given a pithy and entertaining exposition of the main ideas in this book in 50-100 pages.

An interesting quote from the Institute of Physics review of the book: "Those who are familiar with the field will find it alarming to see page after page of results - bearing a striking similarity to previously published work - respresented as Wolfram's personal scientific revelation." The lack of acknowledgement of others is indeed extremely annoying.

I would not recommend that anyone shells out for this book if they can borrow it or get a cheap second hand copy (no, I'm not trying to flog mine on Amazon!).

The vanity outweighs the science, 02 Dec 2004
There are only 2 salient points about this book;

1. There is no "new kind of science" in the book, but rather a collection of very interesting interactions between different simple automata and their limited environments. The book could easily have been the size of an article in Scientific American (for example) and lost none of the essential meaning.

2. The author is *unbelievably* proud of his achievement. This will put any true scientist off. It's not fun to read, having to skip the pages and endless pages of self-congratulatory nonsense to find the occasional nugget of scientific analysis. Almost every paragraph talks about how long he has been doing it (who cares?), how radically he has changed the focus of other sciences (yet to be demonstrated) or how clever he is (also uncertain).

The pictures are nice, and I'm sure many a graduate degree will be pursuing what I'm sure will be fertile ground in this area, but I shall not soon forget the ordeal of trudging through his ego to get there.

It does look impressive on a bookshelf, but I'm hoping none of my guests have actually read it.

One of the best books on the subject, 16 May 2007
I teach bioinformatics, and have a special interest in protein structure. In most texts, the two things barely overlap. In this book, proteins, and especially their structures, take centre stage, in contrast to the 'protein sequence as a data string' view of the world so often taken. This is hardly a surprise, given the authors, but it is a viewpoint I whole-heartedly endorse. Putting the approach to the subject aside, the book is excellent in its own right. Concise, lucid coverage, unified by a set of excellent diagrams and illustrations. Criticisms would be lack of colour throughout, the relatively small format and the lack of web support, but these are minor quibbles.

Invaluable resource for students and researchers, 22 Mar 2004
As an MSc Bioinformatics student, this book proves to be invaluable in understanding my course. Covering topics from all fields of Bioinformatics, this book goes deep into the details necessary for any serious researcher or student. This would be especially useful to someone coming from a computing background; quickly covering the biology required and moving into how this can be integrated with technology to complete the amalgumation of these two sciences. This book is both informative and the perfect resource for quick reference to details when they slip your mind. With such an easy to understand layout, this book is the end to my worries of understanding both sciences to such a high level. This was the best use of my limited student money I have ever made.

they say on the title "an excellent book for beginners and occasional practioners", 19 Jun 2007
... and I agree. This is a book for molecular biologist who want to analyse their data using bioinformatics tools. I would prefer Baxevanis/Oullette "Bioinformatics: A Practical Guide to the Analysis of Genes and Proteins", however, if this is too expensive for you than this "Bioinformatics for Dummies" is the second best choice. Layout and index is a bit more confused but it covers most stuff you will need.

A word of warning: if you want to learn how the programs work, you have to look for a different type of book, e.g. "Biological Sequence Analysis: Probabilistic Models of Proteins and Nucleic Acids" by R. Durbin, Sean R. Eddy, Anders Krogh, and Graeme Mitchison or "Algorithmic Aspects of Bioinformatics" by Hans-Joachim Bockenhauer and Dirk Bongartz.

Clear and informative, 26 Dec 2005
So much of the information is this field (and indeed some of the applications which have been developed) seems almost intentially convoluted and difficult to understand. This book gives a very good overview of some of the more common programs that one will need to use if one is starting bioinformatics research in a way that is practical and easy understand. Despite the title, the authors have done some good work in the field (I use Notredame's T-Coffee alignment program often) and are credible authorities in this area.

Not very new, not very interesting, 06 May 2008
I had been looking forward to reading this book for ages, but am very disappointed.

Most of it is not very new at all, the prose is long winded and tedious to read, a lot of page space is wasted in wide borders and excessive line spacing, and I really don't see the point. I'd sell my copy, but I doubt it's even worth the cost of the postage.

I only gave it two stars in case there is something interesting in there, given the other achievements of the author, but I missed it.


Fascinating ideas, 19 Oct 2006
Wolfram is a British Physicist who developed the Mathematica software. In writing this hefty volume (1200 pages), he has been criticised for failing to adequately acknowledge other authors' contributions to the field of cellular automata. Certainly he has a tendency towards an irritating, self congratulatory style at times, but working through this hefty volume, one certainly cannot fail to acknowledge a huge intellect at work. I strongly recommend this book as it is readable (but not without some effort) by a non-mathematical audience, has wonderful images of cellular automata and presents a range of challenging and fascinating ideas across a broad spectrum of science. Woolfram also proposes and argues a case for a new fundamental law of nature - the principle of computational equivalence which has met with a varied reception in the scientific community. It appears to me, that some of the criticisms of this work may have be driven by Woolfram's failure to acknowledge the shoulders he has stood on as well as his decision to opt for a commercial publication path rather than through peer review in published scientific journals. Personally, I found the most interesting parts of the book were in the field of cellular automata as models of biological systems. The chapter on perception and anlaysis and in his explanatory model of apparent human free will.

Interesting but ultimately flawed, 01 Feb 2006
Perhaps the biggest frustration when reading the book is the total lack of references to other peoples work. Wolfram explains his reasoning for this but it gives what could be a classic work a hollow feeling because you do not see the work in context and it is hard to judge it against what was done before. His case would have been much more credible with the references and this would have made it seem a more informed and less partial work.

The later parts of the book and his arguments regarding computational equivalence are very hard to penetrate and again this could have been improved if he had looked for other sources. His idea ia an important one as it underpins why we do science and how we should do science when we deal with complexity where simulation plays a vital role in improving our understanding. This will be a debate that will go on for some time.

Pretty pictures, dull prose, 26 Feb 2005
As someone with a scientific background but no specific knowledge of the subject of this book, I was not really convinced that it presented any new ideas that I had not come across (at least hinted at) in other popular science books. However, that is a difficult conclusion to reach, because Wolfram's undisciplined and badly structured prose style compares extremely poorly to most other popular science writers, and I confess to skipping large chunks. I'm sure a more talented communicator could have given a pithy and entertaining exposition of the main ideas in this book in 50-100 pages.

An interesting quote from the Institute of Physics review of the book: "Those who are familiar with the field will find it alarming to see page after page of results - bearing a striking similarity to previously published work - respresented as Wolfram's personal scientific revelation." The lack of acknowledgement of others is indeed extremely annoying.

I would not recommend that anyone shells out for this book if they can borrow it or get a cheap second hand copy (no, I'm not trying to flog mine on Amazon!).

The vanity outweighs the science, 02 Dec 2004
There are only 2 salient points about this book;

1. There is no "new kind of science" in the book, but rather a collection of very interesting interactions between different simple automata and their limited environments. The book could easily have been the size of an article in Scientific American (for example) and lost none of the essential meaning.

2. The author is *unbelievably* proud of his achievement. This will put any true scientist off. It's not fun to read, having to skip the pages and endless pages of self-congratulatory nonsense to find the occasional nugget of scientific analysis. Almost every paragraph talks about how long he has been doing it (who cares?), how radically he has changed the focus of other sciences (yet to be demonstrated) or how clever he is (also uncertain).

The pictures are nice, and I'm sure many a graduate degree will be pursuing what I'm sure will be fertile ground in this area, but I shall not soon forget the ordeal of trudging through his ego to get there.

It does look impressive on a bookshelf, but I'm hoping none of my guests have actually read it.

One of the best books on the subject, 16 May 2007
I teach bioinformatics, and have a special interest in protein structure. In most texts, the two things barely overlap. In this book, proteins, and especially their structures, take centre stage, in contrast to the 'protein sequence as a data string' view of the world so often taken. This is hardly a surprise, given the authors, but it is a viewpoint I whole-heartedly endorse. Putting the approach to the subject aside, the book is excellent in its own right. Concise, lucid coverage, unified by a set of excellent diagrams and illustrations. Criticisms would be lack of colour throughout, the relatively small format and the lack of web support, but these are minor quibbles.

Invaluable resource for students and researchers, 22 Mar 2004
As an MSc Bioinformatics student, this book proves to be invaluable in understanding my course. Covering topics from all fields of Bioinformatics, this book goes deep into the details necessary for any serious researcher or student. This would be especially useful to someone coming from a computing background; quickly covering the biology required and moving into how this can be integrated with technology to complete the amalgumation of these two sciences. This book is both informative and the perfect resource for quick reference to details when they slip your mind. With such an easy to understand layout, this book is the end to my worries of understanding both sciences to such a high level. This was the best use of my limited student money I have ever made.

Excellent, A must for mathematician and edidemiologists, 23 Jan 2001
I got hold of this book via one of the authors about two years ago when I first began working on disease modeling. It's a excellent book, well written, easy to follow and the discussions in each chapter are both intriguing and sensible. This books is aimed at biologists and epidemiologists who wish to work with mathematical models, but don't understand the various complexity that mathematicians sometimes go in to.

It is divided into three sections, Part I being the most important for nearly all readers. This is an introduction to modeling and its fundamental concepts. Part II works on the theory, important concepts like the reproduction ratio are looked at in great detail here. Finally Part III is elaborations to nearly all the exercises. I particularly like this section as the answers are given in both mathematical equations and words, so it is clear to see what is going on.

I would certainly recommend this book to anyone with a vague interest in disease modelling. I've tried to think of something negative to say about this book, but I can't find anything. Perphaps the cover's a bit strange?

they say on the title "an excellent book for beginners and occasional practioners", 19 Jun 2007
... and I agree. This is a book for molecular biologist who want to analyse their data using bioinformatics tools. I would prefer Baxevanis/Oullette "Bioinformatics: A Practical Guide to the Analysis of Genes and Proteins", however, if this is too expensive for you than this "Bioinformatics for Dummies" is the second best choice. Layout and index is a bit more confused but it covers most stuff you will need.

A word of warning: if you want to learn how the programs work, you have to look for a different type of book, e.g. "Biological Sequence Analysis: Probabilistic Models of Proteins and Nucleic Acids" by R. Durbin, Sean R. Eddy, Anders Krogh, and Graeme Mitchison or "Algorithmic Aspects of Bioinformatics" by Hans-Joachim Bockenhauer and Dirk Bongartz.

Clear and informative, 26 Dec 2005
So much of the information is this field (and indeed some of the applications which have been developed) seems almost intentially convoluted and difficult to understand. This book gives a very good overview of some of the more common programs that one will need to use if one is starting bioinformatics research in a way that is practical and easy understand. Despite the title, the authors have done some good work in the field (I use Notredame's T-Coffee alignment program often) and are credible authorities in this area.

Not very new, not very interesting, 06 May 2008
I had been looking forward to reading this book for ages, but am very disappointed.

Most of it is not very new at all, the prose is long winded and tedious to read, a lot of page space is wasted in wide borders and excessive line spacing, and I really don't see the point. I'd sell my copy, but I doubt it's even worth the cost of the postage.

I only gave it two stars in case there is something interesting in there, given the other achievements of the author, but I missed it.


Fascinating ideas, 19 Oct 2006
Wolfram is a British Physicist who developed the Mathematica software. In writing this hefty volume (1200 pages), he has been criticised for failing to adequately acknowledge other authors' contributions to the field of cellular automata. Certainly he has a tendency towards an irritating, self congratulatory style at times, but working through this hefty volume, one certainly cannot fail to acknowledge a huge intellect at work. I strongly recommend this book as it is readable (but not without some effort) by a non-mathematical audience, has wonderful images of cellular automata and presents a range of challenging and fascinating ideas across a broad spectrum of science. Woolfram also proposes and argues a case for a new fundamental law of nature - the principle of computational equivalence which has met with a varied reception in the scientific community. It appears to me, that some of the criticisms of this work may have be driven by Woolfram's failure to acknowledge the shoulders he has stood on as well as his decision to opt for a commercial publication path rather than through peer review in published scientific journals. Personally, I found the most interesting parts of the book were in the field of cellular automata as models of biological systems. The chapter on perception and anlaysis and in his explanatory model of apparent human free will.

Interesting but ultimately flawed, 01 Feb 2006
Perhaps the biggest frustration when reading the book is the total lack of references to other peoples work. Wolfram explains his reasoning for this but it gives what could be a classic work a hollow feeling because you do not see the work in context and it is hard to judge it against what was done before. His case would have been much more credible with the references and this would have made it seem a more informed and less partial work.

The later parts of the book and his arguments regarding computational equivalence are very hard to penetrate and again this could have been improved if he had looked for other sources. His idea ia an important one as it underpins why we do science and how we should do science when we deal with complexity where simulation plays a vital role in improving our understanding. This will be a debate that will go on for some time.

Pretty pictures, dull prose, 26 Feb 2005
As someone with a scientific background but no specific knowledge of the subject of this book, I was not really convinced that it presented any new ideas that I had not come across (at least hinted at) in other popular science books. However, that is a difficult conclusion to reach, because Wolfram's undisciplined and badly structured prose style compares extremely poorly to most other popular science writers, and I confess to skipping large chunks. I'm sure a more talented communicator could have given a pithy and entertaining exposition of the main ideas in this book in 50-100 pages.

An interesting quote from the Institute of Physics review of the book: "Those who are familiar with the field will find it alarming to see page after page of results - bearing a striking similarity to previously published work - respresented as Wolfram's personal scientific revelation." The lack of acknowledgement of others is indeed extremely annoying.

I would not recommend that anyone shells out for this book if they can borrow it or get a cheap second hand copy (no, I'm not trying to flog mine on Amazon!).

The vanity outweighs the science, 02 Dec 2004
There are only 2 salient points about this book;

1. There is no "new kind of science" in the book, but rather a collection of very interesting interactions between different simple automata and their limited environments. The book could easily have been the size of an article in Scientific American (for example) and lost none of the essential meaning.

2. The author is *unbelievably* proud of his achievement. This will put any true scientist off. It's not fun to read, having to skip the pages and endless pages of self-congratulatory nonsense to find the occasional nugget of scientific analysis. Almost every paragraph talks about how long he has been doing it (who cares?), how radically he has changed the focus of other sciences (yet to be demonstrated) or how clever he is (also uncertain).

The pictures are nice, and I'm sure many a graduate degree will be pursuing what I'm sure will be fertile ground in this area, but I shall not soon forget the ordeal of trudging through his ego to get there.

It does look impressive on a bookshelf, but I'm hoping none of my guests have actually read it.

One of the best books on the subject, 16 May 2007
I teach bioinformatics, and have a special interest in protein structure. In most texts, the two things barely overlap. In this book, proteins, and especially their structures, take centre stage, in contrast to the 'protein sequence as a data string' view of the world so often taken. This is hardly a surprise, given the authors, but it is a viewpoint I whole-heartedly endorse. Putting the approach to the subject aside, the book is excellent in its own right. Concise, lucid coverage, unified by a set of excellent diagrams and illustrations. Criticisms would be lack of colour throughout, the relatively small format and the lack of web support, but these are minor quibbles.

Invaluable resource for students and researchers, 22 Mar 2004
As an MSc Bioinformatics student, this book proves to be invaluable in understanding my course. Covering topics from all fields of Bioinformatics, this book goes deep into the details necessary for any serious researcher or student. This would be especially useful to someone coming from a computing background; quickly covering the biology required and moving into how this can be integrated with technology to complete the amalgumation of these two sciences. This book is both informative and the perfect resource for quick reference to details when they slip your mind. With such an easy to understand layout, this book is the end to my worries of understanding both sciences to such a high level. This was the best use of my limited student money I have ever made.

Excellent, A must for mathematician and edidemiologists, 23 Jan 2001
I got hold of this book via one of the authors about two years ago when I first began working on disease modeling. It's a excellent book, well written, easy to follow and the discussions in each chapter are both intriguing and sensible. This books is aimed at biologists and epidemiologists who wish to work with mathematical models, but don't understand the various complexity that mathematicians sometimes go in to.

It is divided into three sections, Part I being the most important for nearly all readers. This is an introduction to modeling and its fundamental concepts. Part II works on the theory, important concepts like the reproduction ratio are looked at in great detail here. Finally Part III is elaborations to nearly all the exercises. I particularly like this section as the answers are given in both mathematical equations and words, so it is clear to see what is going on.

I would certainly recommend this book to anyone with a vague interest in disease modelling. I've tried to think of something negative to say about this book, but I can't find anything. Perphaps the cover's a bit strange?

At last a bioinformatics textbook with both theory and application!, 07 Dec 2007
I've looked at many of the bioinformatics books available, and apart from this one none has quite the right balance for me. I don't just want to learn how to use the available programs as black boxes, but I also don't want a long and difficult mathematical derivation that doesn't connect to what needs to be done in practice. This book is the best at trying to cover both aspects of the subject. Furthermore, they don't just show a nice working example, but illustrate what happens when things go wrong. After reading the chapters on a topic I now feel ready to delve into the latest papers and I also feel much more confident about analysing my data. A great book!

they say on the title "an excellent book for beginners and occasional practioners", 19 Jun 2007
... and I agree. This is a book for molecular biologist who want to analyse their data using bioinformatics tools. I would prefer Baxevanis/Oullette "Bioinformatics: A Practical Guide to the Analysis of Genes and Proteins", however, if this is too expensive for you than this "Bioinformatics for Dummies" is the second best choice. Layout and index is a bit more confused but it covers most stuff you will need.

A word of warning: if you want to learn how the programs work, you have to look for a different type of book, e.g. "Biological Sequence Analysis: Probabilistic Models of Proteins and Nucleic Acids" by R. Durbin, Sean R. Eddy, Anders Krogh, and Graeme Mitchison or "Algorithmic Aspects of Bioinformatics" by Hans-Joachim Bockenhauer and Dirk Bongartz.

Clear and informative, 26 Dec 2005
So much of the information is this field (and indeed some of the applications which have been developed) seems almost intentially convoluted and difficult to understand. This book gives a very good overview of some of the more common programs that one will need to use if one is starting bioinformatics research in a way that is practical and easy understand. Despite the title, the authors have done some good work in the field (I use Notredame's T-Coffee alignment program often) and are credible authorities in this area.

Not very new, not very interesting, 06 May 2008
I had been looking forward to reading this book for ages, but am very disappointed.

Most of it is not very new at all, the prose is long winded and tedious to read, a lot of page space is wasted in wide borders and excessive line spacing, and I really don't see the point. I'd sell my copy, but I doubt it's even worth the cost of the postage.

I only gave it two stars in case there is something interesting in there, given the other achievements of the author, but I missed it.


Fascinating ideas, 19 Oct 2006
Wolfram is a British Physicist who developed the Mathematica software. In writing this hefty volume (1200 pages), he has been criticised for failing to adequately acknowledge other authors' contributions to the field of cellular automata. Certainly he has a tendency towards an irritating, self congratulatory style at times, but working through this hefty volume, one certainly cannot fail to acknowledge a huge intellect at work. I strongly recommend this book as it is readable (but not without some effort) by a non-mathematical audience, has wonderful images of cellular automata and presents a range of challenging and fascinating ideas across a broad spectrum of science. Woolfram also proposes and argues a case for a new fundamental law of nature - the principle of computational equivalence which has met with a varied reception in the scientific community. It appears to me, that some of the criticisms of this work may have be driven by Woolfram's failure to acknowledge the shoulders he has stood on as well as his decision to opt for a commercial publication path rather than through peer review in published scientific journals. Personally, I found the most interesting parts of the book were in the field of cellular automata as models of biological systems. The chapter on perception and anlaysis and in his explanatory model of apparent human free will.

Interesting but ultimately flawed, 01 Feb 2006
Perhaps the biggest frustration when reading the book is the total lack of references to other peoples work. Wolfram explains his reasoning for this but it gives what could be a classic work a hollow feeling because you do not see the work in context and it is hard to judge it against what was done before. His case would have been much more credible with the references and this would have made it seem a more informed and less partial work.

The later parts of the book and his arguments regarding computational equivalence are very hard to penetrate and again this could have been improved if he had looked for other sources. His idea ia an important one as it underpins why we do science and how we should do science when we deal with complexity where simulation plays a vital role in improving our understanding. This will be a debate that will go on for some time.

Pretty pictures, dull prose, 26 Feb 2005
As someone with a scientific background but no specific knowledge of the subject of this book, I was not really convinced that it presented any new ideas that I had not come across (at least hinted at) in other popular science books. However, that is a difficult conclusion to reach, because Wolfram's undisciplined and badly structured prose style compares extremely poorly to most other popular science writers, and I confess to skipping large chunks. I'm sure a more talented communicator could have given a pithy and entertaining exposition of the main ideas in this book in 50-100 pages.

An interesting quote from the Institute of Physics review of the book: "Those who are familiar with the field will find it alarming to see page after page of results - bearing a striking similarity to previously published work - respresented as Wolfram's personal scientific revelation." The lack of acknowledgement of others is indeed extremely annoying.

I would not recommend that anyone shells out for this book if they can borrow it or get a cheap second hand copy (no, I'm not trying to flog mine on Amazon!).

The vanity outweighs the science, 02 Dec 2004
There are only 2 salient points about this book;

1. There is no "new kind of science" in the book, but rather a collection of very interesting interactions between different simple automata and their limited environments. The book could easily have been the size of an article in Scientific American (for example) and lost none of the essential meaning.

2. The author is *unbelievably* proud of his achievement. This will put any true scientist off. It's not fun to read, having to skip the pages and endless pages of self-congratulatory nonsense to find the occasional nugget of scientific analysis. Almost every paragraph talks about how long he has been doing it (who cares?), how radically he has changed the focus of other sciences (yet to be demonstrated) or how clever he is (also uncertain).

The pictures are nice, and I'm sure many a graduate degree will be pursuing what I'm sure will be fertile ground in this area, but I shall not soon forget the ordeal of trudging through his ego to get there.

It does look impressive on a bookshelf, but I'm hoping none of my guests have actually read it.

One of the best books on the subject, 16 May 2007
I teach bioinformatics, and have a special interest in protein structure. In most texts, the two things barely overlap. In this book, proteins, and especially their structures, take centre stage, in contrast to the 'protein sequence as a data string' view of the world so often taken. This is hardly a surprise, given the authors, but it is a viewpoint I whole-heartedly endorse. Putting the approach to the subject aside, the book is excellent in its own right. Concise, lucid coverage, unified by a set of excellent diagrams and illustrations. Criticisms would be lack of colour throughout, the relatively small format and the lack of web support, but these are minor quibbles.

Invaluable resource for students and researchers, 22 Mar 2004
As an MSc Bioinformatics student, this book proves to be invaluable in understanding my course. Covering topics from all fields of Bioinformatics, this book goes deep into the details necessary for any serious researcher or student. This would be especially useful to someone coming from a computing background; quickly covering the biology required and moving into how this can be integrated with technology to complete the amalgumation of these two sciences. This book is both informative and the perfect resource for quick reference to details when they slip your mind. With such an easy to understand layout, this book is the end to my worries of understanding both sciences to such a high level. This was the best use of my limited student money I have ever made.

Excellent, A must for mathematician and edidemiologists, 23 Jan 2001
I got hold of this book via one of the authors about two years ago when I first began working on disease modeling. It's a excellent book, well written, easy to follow and the discussions in each chapter are both intriguing and sensible. This books is aimed at biologists and epidemiologists who wish to work with mathematical models, but don't understand the various complexity that mathematicians sometimes go in to.

It is divided into three sections, Part I being the most important for nearly all readers. This is an introduction to modeling and its fundamental concepts. Part II works on the theory, important concepts like the reproduction ratio are looked at in great detail here. Finally Part III is elaborations to nearly all the exercises. I particularly like this section as the answers are given in both mathematical equations and words, so it is clear to see what is going on.

I would certainly recommend this book to anyone with a vague interest in disease modelling. I've tried to think of something negative to say about this book, but I can't find anything. Perphaps the cover's a bit strange?

At last a bioinformatics textbook with both theory and application!, 07 Dec 2007
I've looked at many of the bioinformatics books available, and apart from this one none has quite the right balance for me. I don't just want to learn how to use the available programs as black boxes, but I also don't want a long and difficult mathematical derivation that doesn't connect to what needs to be done in practice. This book is the best at trying to cover both aspects of the subject. Furthermore, they don't just show a nice working example, but illustrate what happens when things go wrong. After reading the chapters on a topic I now feel ready to delve into the latest papers and I also feel much more confident about analysing my data. A great book!

excellent theoretical introduction, 18 Nov 2007
This book provides an excellent theoretical introduction all of the major concepts and models used in phylogenetics. It considers the more recognized models implemented in all the standard software packages such as PHYLIP, PAUP and PAML as well as considering more recent developments in Bayesian analysis implemented in software such as BEAST and MrBayes. Anyone with a good grounding in calculus should be able to follow this book without any problems, although i wouldn't recommend it for pure biologists. The book " Bioinformatics and Molecular Evolution" by Paul Higgs and Teresa Attwood is a much more gentle introduction to almost all the same material, but without going overboard on the mathematics.

What i also like about Yang Ziheng's book is his style of writing. I think there are few scientific writers who can express themselves with such clarity, something that comes through in his journal publications as well.