Quite good, 14 Jun 2004
I got this off amazon, as we were studying Microbiology & Biotech (OCR syllabus), and were given the old version at school.

I have to say its ok, but not brilliant. It covers most of the OCR syllabus well, although there are a couple of areas that could be improved. It also contains some of the work taken off the syllabus 4 years ago.
Also, it's a shame its in black and white.

Although not quite up to the standard of "Biology 1" and "Biology 2", I still would not be without it, nor should anyone studying this course.

Very useful, especially for those studying it at A-Level., 09 Nov 2000
This book came in very useful and was very appropriate for the course I was studying. It covered all the necessary points and was very helpful during revision. It has one downfall, it is printed in black and white and could've been in colour which would've made it more interesting. On the whole, this book deserves four stars and I would reccomend it to anyone interested in this field of biology.

Quite good, 14 Jun 2004
I got this off amazon, as we were studying Microbiology & Biotech (OCR syllabus), and were given the old version at school.

I have to say its ok, but not brilliant. It covers most of the OCR syllabus well, although there are a couple of areas that could be improved. It also contains some of the work taken off the syllabus 4 years ago.
Also, it's a shame its in black and white.

Although not quite up to the standard of "Biology 1" and "Biology 2", I still would not be without it, nor should anyone studying this course.

Very useful, especially for those studying it at A-Level., 09 Nov 2000
This book came in very useful and was very appropriate for the course I was studying. It covered all the necessary points and was very helpful during revision. It has one downfall, it is printed in black and white and could've been in colour which would've made it more interesting. On the whole, this book deserves four stars and I would reccomend it to anyone interested in this field of biology.

history of microbiology, 28 Aug 2007
history of microbiology .what is meant by microbiology ,who found first ,whats the benefits of microbiology ,classification of microbiology ,

Quite good, 14 Jun 2004
I got this off amazon, as we were studying Microbiology & Biotech (OCR syllabus), and were given the old version at school.

I have to say its ok, but not brilliant. It covers most of the OCR syllabus well, although there are a couple of areas that could be improved. It also contains some of the work taken off the syllabus 4 years ago.
Also, it's a shame its in black and white.

Although not quite up to the standard of "Biology 1" and "Biology 2", I still would not be without it, nor should anyone studying this course.

Very useful, especially for those studying it at A-Level., 09 Nov 2000
This book came in very useful and was very appropriate for the course I was studying. It covered all the necessary points and was very helpful during revision. It has one downfall, it is printed in black and white and could've been in colour which would've made it more interesting. On the whole, this book deserves four stars and I would reccomend it to anyone interested in this field of biology.

history of microbiology, 28 Aug 2007
history of microbiology .what is meant by microbiology ,who found first ,whats the benefits of microbiology ,classification of microbiology ,

Excellent book - accurate whirlwind tour of the essentials, 16 Jul 2001
As a newcomer to the field I found this book to be an excellent introductory guide to the fascinating world of genetic engineering.

The author intelligently and effectively communicates both scientific theory and practical aspects of the subject in an easy to read and engaging format.

The book is indispensable reading for anyone who wants to delve into the science of genetic engineering - much better than ploughing through an overbearing textbook.

Quite good, 14 Jun 2004
I got this off amazon, as we were studying Microbiology & Biotech (OCR syllabus), and were given the old version at school.

I have to say its ok, but not brilliant. It covers most of the OCR syllabus well, although there are a couple of areas that could be improved. It also contains some of the work taken off the syllabus 4 years ago.
Also, it's a shame its in black and white.

Although not quite up to the standard of "Biology 1" and "Biology 2", I still would not be without it, nor should anyone studying this course.

Very useful, especially for those studying it at A-Level., 09 Nov 2000
This book came in very useful and was very appropriate for the course I was studying. It covered all the necessary points and was very helpful during revision. It has one downfall, it is printed in black and white and could've been in colour which would've made it more interesting. On the whole, this book deserves four stars and I would reccomend it to anyone interested in this field of biology.

history of microbiology, 28 Aug 2007
history of microbiology .what is meant by microbiology ,who found first ,whats the benefits of microbiology ,classification of microbiology ,

Excellent book - accurate whirlwind tour of the essentials, 16 Jul 2001
As a newcomer to the field I found this book to be an excellent introductory guide to the fascinating world of genetic engineering.

The author intelligently and effectively communicates both scientific theory and practical aspects of the subject in an easy to read and engaging format.

The book is indispensable reading for anyone who wants to delve into the science of genetic engineering - much better than ploughing through an overbearing textbook.

Fact-filled introduction to how microbes affect our lives, 12 Feb 2001
This is a companion volume to the undergraduate text Introductory Microbiology. The emphasis here is on what microbes can do presented in a relatively nontechnical fashion so that the material is accessible to an educated readership and not just to bio meds. The material is organized in eight chapters from "The microbiology of soil and of nutrient cycling" through "Food microbiology" (an especially easy and interesting chapter) to "Chemotherapy and antibiotic resistance." The longest and most densely-packed chapter is "7 Microbial infections." The sub-headings in the chapters are in the form of questions, such as "5.5.1 How do microbes cause food spoilage?" or "7.8 What causes infections of skin, bone and soft tissues?" This format seems to encourage communication from the authors to the general reader and improves the readability of the text. There is a glossary of bold-faced terms and an index.

I picked this up because I felt a need for a more fundamental and broad introduction to microbiology than I would get from a popular volume, yet I didn't want to read a textbook. Microbiology in Action turns out to be a perfect fit to what I need mainly because of the wealth of information it contains. I learned about how microbes are used in mining and in the oil industry, how microbes ferment and preserve food, how recombinant DNA technology allows us to use microbes to produce pharmaceutical products such as insulin, interferons, hormones and antibiotics. I was delighted with some of the peripheral information. I learned, for example, how some people managed to have ice cream in the summer time before the age of refrigeration. Some big estates built icehouses to store perishable foodstuffs. "These are large structures, often built underground for extra insulation. Ice from local rivers and the estate lake was collected during the winter months and stored in the icehouse. Because of the size of the ice stock and the insulation of the structure, the ice gathered one year would last through the summer and into the next winter. This provided ice for summer desserts" (p. 90). I also learned that there are typically about one hundred million to one billion bacteria per gram dry weight of soil (p. 5) and that the number of cells of, in, and on the human body is around ten to the fourteenth, 90% of which are not of human origin (p. 119).

It is now common knowledge that we are products of the microbial world and could not exist without it. Microbes conditioned, and are conditioning, the planet so that so-called higher forms of life might exist. Still the vast majority of life on this planet is microbial, and that is a compelling reason for us to be more informed about microbes. Reading Microbiology in Action is an excellent way to begin.

Quite good, 14 Jun 2004
I got this off amazon, as we were studying Microbiology & Biotech (OCR syllabus), and were given the old version at school.

I have to say its ok, but not brilliant. It covers most of the OCR syllabus well, although there are a couple of areas that could be improved. It also contains some of the work taken off the syllabus 4 years ago.
Also, it's a shame its in black and white.

Although not quite up to the standard of "Biology 1" and "Biology 2", I still would not be without it, nor should anyone studying this course.

Very useful, especially for those studying it at A-Level., 09 Nov 2000
This book came in very useful and was very appropriate for the course I was studying. It covered all the necessary points and was very helpful during revision. It has one downfall, it is printed in black and white and could've been in colour which would've made it more interesting. On the whole, this book deserves four stars and I would reccomend it to anyone interested in this field of biology.

history of microbiology, 28 Aug 2007
history of microbiology .what is meant by microbiology ,who found first ,whats the benefits of microbiology ,classification of microbiology ,

Excellent book - accurate whirlwind tour of the essentials, 16 Jul 2001
As a newcomer to the field I found this book to be an excellent introductory guide to the fascinating world of genetic engineering.

The author intelligently and effectively communicates both scientific theory and practical aspects of the subject in an easy to read and engaging format.

The book is indispensable reading for anyone who wants to delve into the science of genetic engineering - much better than ploughing through an overbearing textbook.

Fact-filled introduction to how microbes affect our lives, 12 Feb 2001
This is a companion volume to the undergraduate text Introductory Microbiology. The emphasis here is on what microbes can do presented in a relatively nontechnical fashion so that the material is accessible to an educated readership and not just to bio meds. The material is organized in eight chapters from "The microbiology of soil and of nutrient cycling" through "Food microbiology" (an especially easy and interesting chapter) to "Chemotherapy and antibiotic resistance." The longest and most densely-packed chapter is "7 Microbial infections." The sub-headings in the chapters are in the form of questions, such as "5.5.1 How do microbes cause food spoilage?" or "7.8 What causes infections of skin, bone and soft tissues?" This format seems to encourage communication from the authors to the general reader and improves the readability of the text. There is a glossary of bold-faced terms and an index.

I picked this up because I felt a need for a more fundamental and broad introduction to microbiology than I would get from a popular volume, yet I didn't want to read a textbook. Microbiology in Action turns out to be a perfect fit to what I need mainly because of the wealth of information it contains. I learned about how microbes are used in mining and in the oil industry, how microbes ferment and preserve food, how recombinant DNA technology allows us to use microbes to produce pharmaceutical products such as insulin, interferons, hormones and antibiotics. I was delighted with some of the peripheral information. I learned, for example, how some people managed to have ice cream in the summer time before the age of refrigeration. Some big estates built icehouses to store perishable foodstuffs. "These are large structures, often built underground for extra insulation. Ice from local rivers and the estate lake was collected during the winter months and stored in the icehouse. Because of the size of the ice stock and the insulation of the structure, the ice gathered one year would last through the summer and into the next winter. This provided ice for summer desserts" (p. 90). I also learned that there are typically about one hundred million to one billion bacteria per gram dry weight of soil (p. 5) and that the number of cells of, in, and on the human body is around ten to the fourteenth, 90% of which are not of human origin (p. 119).

It is now common knowledge that we are products of the microbial world and could not exist without it. Microbes conditioned, and are conditioning, the planet so that so-called higher forms of life might exist. Still the vast majority of life on this planet is microbial, and that is a compelling reason for us to be more informed about microbes. Reading Microbiology in Action is an excellent way to begin.

A comprehensive reference, 20 Sep 2003
This book will be very useful to researchers in the field, technical experts asked to assess the technology, and nontechnical people wanting to learn and make decisions about biometrics. The book begins with an introductory chapter that summarizes biometric features and system performance, as well as giving a history of fingerprint usage. The second chapter compares and contrasts a variety of fingerprint image acquisition approaches. The third chapter provides a description of a number of feature extraction techniques, with special emphasis on point features known as minutiae. Fingerprint matching is covered in the fourth chapter, with emphasis on minutiae matching and the well-known FingerCode technique. The fifth chapter addresses techniques to handle the scaling problem (matching one fingerprint against a database of 100 is hard; matching a print against a database of 100,000,000 prints is harder!), as well as performance and database management issues. The sixth chapter presents a clever technique to populate fingerprint databases for assessment; namely, the generation of synthetic fingerprints. The seventh chapter addresses fusion of multiple biometrics (e.g., fingerprint plus face) for improved performance. The eighth chapter is a rigorous treatment of fingerprint individuality and should be required reading for those in the justice system that either routinely question the reliability of fingerprints or routinely trust them to be unique. The final chapter of the book deals with the security of fingerprint systems and covers common and uncommon spoofs. A comprehensive bibliography caps off this book. Finally, a DVD-rom with several fingerprint databases and a trial version of the synthetic fingerprint generation software accompanies the book.

The authors of this text are highly respected and important contributors to the science of computerized analysis of fingerprints. This book is likely to be an instant classic in a field of growing importance.

Quite good, 14 Jun 2004
I got this off amazon, as we were studying Microbiology & Biotech (OCR syllabus), and were given the old version at school.

I have to say its ok, but not brilliant. It covers most of the OCR syllabus well, although there are a couple of areas that could be improved. It also contains some of the work taken off the syllabus 4 years ago.
Also, it's a shame its in black and white.

Although not quite up to the standard of "Biology 1" and "Biology 2", I still would not be without it, nor should anyone studying this course.

Very useful, especially for those studying it at A-Level., 09 Nov 2000
This book came in very useful and was very appropriate for the course I was studying. It covered all the necessary points and was very helpful during revision. It has one downfall, it is printed in black and white and could've been in colour which would've made it more interesting. On the whole, this book deserves four stars and I would reccomend it to anyone interested in this field of biology.

history of microbiology, 28 Aug 2007
history of microbiology .what is meant by microbiology ,who found first ,whats the benefits of microbiology ,classification of microbiology ,

Excellent book - accurate whirlwind tour of the essentials, 16 Jul 2001
As a newcomer to the field I found this book to be an excellent introductory guide to the fascinating world of genetic engineering.

The author intelligently and effectively communicates both scientific theory and practical aspects of the subject in an easy to read and engaging format.

The book is indispensable reading for anyone who wants to delve into the science of genetic engineering - much better than ploughing through an overbearing textbook.

Fact-filled introduction to how microbes affect our lives, 12 Feb 2001
This is a companion volume to the undergraduate text Introductory Microbiology. The emphasis here is on what microbes can do presented in a relatively nontechnical fashion so that the material is accessible to an educated readership and not just to bio meds. The material is organized in eight chapters from "The microbiology of soil and of nutrient cycling" through "Food microbiology" (an especially easy and interesting chapter) to "Chemotherapy and antibiotic resistance." The longest and most densely-packed chapter is "7 Microbial infections." The sub-headings in the chapters are in the form of questions, such as "5.5.1 How do microbes cause food spoilage?" or "7.8 What causes infections of skin, bone and soft tissues?" This format seems to encourage communication from the authors to the general reader and improves the readability of the text. There is a glossary of bold-faced terms and an index.

I picked this up because I felt a need for a more fundamental and broad introduction to microbiology than I would get from a popular volume, yet I didn't want to read a textbook. Microbiology in Action turns out to be a perfect fit to what I need mainly because of the wealth of information it contains. I learned about how microbes are used in mining and in the oil industry, how microbes ferment and preserve food, how recombinant DNA technology allows us to use microbes to produce pharmaceutical products such as insulin, interferons, hormones and antibiotics. I was delighted with some of the peripheral information. I learned, for example, how some people managed to have ice cream in the summer time before the age of refrigeration. Some big estates built icehouses to store perishable foodstuffs. "These are large structures, often built underground for extra insulation. Ice from local rivers and the estate lake was collected during the winter months and stored in the icehouse. Because of the size of the ice stock and the insulation of the structure, the ice gathered one year would last through the summer and into the next winter. This provided ice for summer desserts" (p. 90). I also learned that there are typically about one hundred million to one billion bacteria per gram dry weight of soil (p. 5) and that the number of cells of, in, and on the human body is around ten to the fourteenth, 90% of which are not of human origin (p. 119).

It is now common knowledge that we are products of the microbial world and could not exist without it. Microbes conditioned, and are conditioning, the planet so that so-called higher forms of life might exist. Still the vast majority of life on this planet is microbial, and that is a compelling reason for us to be more informed about microbes. Reading Microbiology in Action is an excellent way to begin.

A comprehensive reference, 20 Sep 2003
This book will be very useful to researchers in the field, technical experts asked to assess the technology, and nontechnical people wanting to learn and make decisions about biometrics. The book begins with an introductory chapter that summarizes biometric features and system performance, as well as giving a history of fingerprint usage. The second chapter compares and contrasts a variety of fingerprint image acquisition approaches. The third chapter provides a description of a number of feature extraction techniques, with special emphasis on point features known as minutiae. Fingerprint matching is covered in the fourth chapter, with emphasis on minutiae matching and the well-known FingerCode technique. The fifth chapter addresses techniques to handle the scaling problem (matching one fingerprint against a database of 100 is hard; matching a print against a database of 100,000,000 prints is harder!), as well as performance and database management issues. The sixth chapter presents a clever technique to populate fingerprint databases for assessment; namely, the generation of synthetic fingerprints. The seventh chapter addresses fusion of multiple biometrics (e.g., fingerprint plus face) for improved performance. The eighth chapter is a rigorous treatment of fingerprint individuality and should be required reading for those in the justice system that either routinely question the reliability of fingerprints or routinely trust them to be unique. The final chapter of the book deals with the security of fingerprint systems and covers common and uncommon spoofs. A comprehensive bibliography caps off this book. Finally, a DVD-rom with several fingerprint databases and a trial version of the synthetic fingerprint generation software accompanies the book.

The authors of this text are highly respected and important contributors to the science of computerized analysis of fingerprints. This book is likely to be an instant classic in a field of growing importance.

Practical and Beautiful., 21 Feb 1999
What might at first glance appear to be your basic botany book actually doubles as a beautiful "coffee table" book with the most splendid artwork you will ever see. Display it proudly. Use it wisely. Kudos most especially to M. Ogorzaly, her work is most impressive out of the bunch of distinguished collaborators!