Principles of Genetics

When I was getting a very brief introduction of genetics in my Biology book by Raven, for some reason I was just not understanding what the hell I was reading. This book is easy to grasp, very well written. I highly recommend it to anyone, also, the CD is pretty good.

I would rate this as one of the best (if not the best) introductory texts in genetics. Comparing this to various other material that I've come across, Snustad and Simmons definitely exhibit superior aptitude in educational skills in this work. They have a firm grasp of what their target readers can understand and know how build up the readers' progressive comprehension while keeping the interest level high. This is the true mark of a well-constructed textbook. We all know how boring some texts can be, but I found myself always itching to read on and even go backward to review some of the concepts. The authors' use of simple language (unlike some other "introductory" texts) makes reading somewhat "light and fun" in contrast to some others who seem to not be as adept in communicating to "pre-PhD" students.Another characteristic that makes this work stand out is it's sheer beauty. The illustrations, photographs, charts, and even the layout are absolutely gorgeous! Hey, I'm not one who judges a book by the cover, but even the cover is beautiful! The artwork is well thought out and easy to understand. Many parts of the text can be reviewed plainly by looking at the pictorial descriptions without necessitating too much re-reading of the sections.The authors also include well-placed "sidelights" throughout the book to help the reader get a "real-life" connection to subject. And the sidelights are mostly about what we care about most...ourselves. Thus, in addition to constant reference to medical applications here and there, the sidelights help the reader appreciate what genetics is all about.Another important aspect of this text is that it is up to date. The authors have taken into consideration the exponential advances in the field and documented it here. That is just one more plus to this already fantastic piece of work!

If you are looking for a book that describes classical genetics in great details, this book is not for you. To me, the main effort of the authors is to focus on the modern idea of how geneticists think and work. The organization of the text is nicely arranged so that readers can understand the concepts in one chapter that lead to the more advanced one in the next chapter. The materials presented are not too "introductory", and it is not too difficult for a typical undergraduate student to understand either. Also, It can properly serve as a good reference for a graduate student, like myself, when a time of need in some genetic concepts!

As the authors indicate, this book is meant to be an introduction to genetics. It should, therefore, be judged as such. My academic background is physics, not biology, and I can testify that this book presents a comprehensive overview of basic principles, historic info about classical experiments and important persons, and intros to modern topics. The pictures in the book illustrate the various processes and schemes quite well. In short, the book provides what it is meant to provide. More detail would blow up the size of the book, only to discourage readers new to genetics.

In this ever changing world of research, the scientists need to be always actual. This book is very important to students of biological sciences, like me. It give to us a good notion of mendelian genetics,molecular biology. We can find many experiments actually used in molecular biology. Congratulations to the writers and I am sorry about E. Gardner.