Cell Biology by the Numbers

by Ron Milo, Rob Phillips

Overview

A Top 25 CHOICE 2016 Title, and recipient of the CHOICE Outstanding Academic Title (OAT) Award. How much energy is released in ATP hydrolysis? How many mRNAs are in a cell? How genetically similar are two random people? What is faster, transcription or translation?Cell Biology by the Numbers explores these questions and dozens of others provid

Product Details

ISBN-13:	9780429652615
Publisher:	CRC Press
Publication date:	12/07/2015
Sold by:	Barnes & Noble
Format:	eBook
Pages:	400
File size:	29 MB
Note:	This product may take a few minutes to download.

About the Author

Ron Milo, Rob Phillips

Table of Contents

The Path to Biological Numeracy1. Size and Geometry2. Concentrations and Absolute Numbers3. Energies and Forces 4. Rates and Duration5. Information & Errors6. A Quantitative MiscellanyEpilogue

Editorial Reviews

"This unique book is all about numerical thinking in (cell) biology. In about 100 vignettes, each a few pages long, the authors address all kinds of questions from a quantitative perspective.Overall, this is an interesting and highly useful volume, which should sit on the shelf of anyone working in cell biology and related fields, as well as anyone who is just curious about (cell) biology from a quantitative perspective."
Andreas Handel, Epidemiology & Biostatistics,University of Georgia, Athens, Georgia, Volume 92, Number 4 (December 2017) of The Quarterly Review of Biology

From the Publisher

Reviewer: Balbina Plotkin, Ph.D., M.Ed.(Midwestern University Chicago College of Osteopathic Medicine)
Description: This innovative book on cell biology is unique in the way it collects in one place facts typically scattered throughout multiple books. It is referenced throughout to a website, developed by one of the coauthors, which provides additional information and importantly is annotated with both the date the information was added and last updated. This information gives readers a starting date for additional research. That said, the likelihood that additional research will be required is low since the "numbers" in this book represent the fundamental facts that, at least in theory, are carved in stone.
Purpose: The purpose is to provide a "one stop shop" for those factoids that we all need at some point. There is nothing so frustrating or time consuming as looking for basic information, such as cell volume or cell surface size, for receptor calculations. The advantage of this book is that the descriptive chapter titles provide good direction and the web links lead to the reference typically required.
Audience: This is user friendly enough for beginning students, from high school to graduate school, and would be an important addition to the bookshelves of faculty. The inclusion of some formulas indicating how the information was acquired could also be useful for even younger readers, because who doesn't want to know how many cells are in the body?
Features: This book is the soup to nuts of basic information needed to be a functional biologist. Information about cell composition coupled with the practicalities makes it particularly complete. Not only does it provide basic information about the requirements for cell nutrition and medium, it also frankly states the amount of air volume needed for liquid culture of aerobic microorganisms, which is particularly helpful. The book will be useful as assigned reading for beginning student researchers, providing as it does the practical information required to be successful at the bench, as well as helping them understand how things work. For example, the explanation of how many virions it takes to burst a cell is informative and presented in a manner that makes it easy to understand. The beautiful and directly accessible illustrations support the text and are an important adjunct, particularly in areas where a simple equation may be difficult to understand. These illustrations are of particular importance for novices in the field of cell biology.
Assessment: This is a high quality book that will have broad appeal. Students will use it to learn the facts and the physics behind the paradigms, while seasoned scientists will use it as a quick reference to the facts needed for their calculations. An additional audience could be casual readers who wish to know how the biological world works. The direct, no-nonsense writing makes it an enjoyable, quick read.

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