Molecular Biology

This book has set gold standards for any book on life sciences. Forget benjamin lewis, bruce alberts, watson, etc. Life sciences unlike mathematical and physical sciences is primarily experiment based. This book page by page reveals the process of discovery. yes, it is dense in experimental detail but such an approach is vital in biology. I discovered this book while conducting classes for master's student in molecular biology. A good teacher can literally make this book a gold mine of discovery. i would advice students to refer this book and not look for schematic and descriptive short-cuts offered elsewhere. This will need patience but develop feel and understanding of the subject and appreciation of genius behind life science scientists. I wish others takes this kind of effort in covering other topics such as developmental biology (gilbert is good but not to this level), neurobiology, evolution, taxonomy, etc. the perspective, the detail, summarising and then fluid continuity-this book has all that.

I had the good fortune of taking Gene Expression from Professor Weaver himself and have to say that this is a fantastic book used in a fantastic class. I'm halfway through Medical School headed toward a residency in Medical Genetics and I still pull this book out from time to time to clarify salient points that I have forgotten through time. This is a great book for students with a strong background in molecular biology.I might also add that Professor Weaver is a really nice guy, so it's good karma to buy his book. :)

I am a faculty member at a liberal arts college in Pennsylvania and will be using this textbook for the third year in a row. While the style of the text IS difficult for students at the beginning, as they become comfortable with it, they use it more and more as a resource. Every year I have the students evaluate the textbook and this book has received high marks both years I have used it. An instructor using this textbook needs to spend more time discussing the details with the students in the beginning, which decrease the total amount of material you can cover during the semester. However, after using this textbook, students can pick up the primary literature and are quite conversant with it. My class consists of students ranging from second semester sophomores through second semester seniors. If you just want to lecture to students, this may not be the textbook for you to use, but if you want to engage your students in the ways that molecular biologists solve problems, this textbook is an excellent choice.

I have used this text as an undergrad and now as a grad student (in the interest of full disclosure, I am currently taking a class with Dr. Weaver and we are using this text; surprise, surprise). I found the use of experimental data to be extremely helpful, especially since molecular biology is an experimental field. It really gives one a feel for how we arrived at what we know and what was the thinking that led to it. That said, this is probably not an ideal text for an introduction to molecular biology. Students using this text should have some familiarity with genetics and cell biology. When I used this text as an undergrad (at a liberal arts college in Kansas) I was a little overwhelmed by the amount of experimental information at first, but I grew to appreciate it greatly. It allowed me to better develop analytical skills that are important for the field. On the whole, this has been probably one of the best books I have seen in this field.

Unlike famous Lodish's and Albert's molecular biology texts, this wonderful work of Weaver is focused mainly on methodology used in daily life of almost all molecular biologists. The approach that Dr. Weaver used to explain concepts in this text is unique and very effective. I find that this text not only helps me understand the difficult concepts of molecular biology, but also teaches me to interpret data in the scientific papers. Even though the materials presented in the text do not cover many aspects of the field, this text presents almost all important concepts that undergraduate students majoring in CMB, Biochemistry or Biology should know. This book is an excellent one.