Microbiology FD

by Jennifer C. Stearns

Microbiology is the study of life itself, down to the smallest particle Microbiology is a fascinating field that explores life down to the tiniest level. Did you know that your body contains more bacteria cells than human cells? It's true. Microbes are essential to our everyday lives, from the food we eat to the very internal systems that keep us alive. These microbes include bacteria, algae, fungi, viruses, and nematodes. Without microbes, life on Earth would not survive. It's amazing to think that all life is so dependent on these microscopic creatures, but their impact on our future is even more astonishing. Microbes are the tools that allow us to engineer hardier crops, create better medicines, and fuel our technology in sustainable ways. Microbes may just help us save the world.

"Microbiology For Dummies" is your guide to understanding the fundamentals of this enormously-encompassing field. Whether your career plans include microbiology or another science or health specialty, you need to understand life at the cellular level before you can understand anything on the macro scale. Explore the difference between prokaryotic and eukaryotic cells Understand the basics of cell function and metabolism Discover the differences between pathogenic and symbiotic relationships Study the mechanisms that keep different organisms active and alive

You need to know how cells work, how they get nutrients, and how they die. You need to know the effects different microbes have on different systems, and how certain microbes are integral to ecosystem health. Microbes are literally the foundation of all life, and they are everywhere. "Microbiology For Dummies" will help you understand them, appreciate them, and use them.

Genres: Science, Nonfiction, Biology

384 pages, Paperback

First published October 20, 2014

Reviews

[Leah Markum · Rating 2 out of 5]

DNF: 40%

I kept trying, but a Dummies book is not for me on this subject. I think it works best for people that learn with the bare bones, memorize the terminology and a few relations, and move on. I can't stomach spending long periods on one page because there's five new terms to memorize and if I don't then I get lost a few pages later.

This book is vocabulary heavy, context light. I remember the usual textbooks that go for paragraphs before the one sentence that actually means anything, but it turns out the opposite--at least for microbiology--doesn't work either. This book trimmed out deeper explanations and left itself content that's best carefully memorized than read qualitatively.

I need to be able to see the big picture first and work my way down. That's opposite of traditional instruction, yet I think a traditional textbook will give me the option of skipping around, reading different aspects, and have enough word bulk to give me context. I skip around in Microbiology for Dummies and I'm facing a large share of jargon.

Essentially, this book would work best if the reader is prepared to pull out some note cards and study vocabulary for a whilefirst and read in short spurts. I couldn't keep that pace. It's more efficient for me to do what I did for cell biology and read sections and converse with myself or even write my reflections on the section so I can understand theory first. Vocabulary means nothing to me without that.

[David · Rating 3 out of 5]

While this book covered a plethora of information I would suggest reading a college textbook instead. My plan is to get one used for $9 and read it. Too much in this book was not explained to make proper sense of it.

[Nicola Michelle · Rating 5 out of 5]

I found this book to be a fantastic, broad and perfect encapsulation of the microbiological field, including all the most important areas and knowledge that you need to know for this area of science. It is brilliant at laying down the foundational knowledge of this topic, being very easy to read, informative and great at explaining all the concepts that perhaps may have been confusing before.

I read this cover to cover and found that I retained an awful lot of the information I read. Definitely a great indication of how well the book is written to help the reader understand what they are reading and learning. I also loved that the book directed you to online resources as well to further expand your knowledge or help in further understanding.

I really do love the subject of microbiology, which is perhaps why I’m pursuing a masters in it. I read this book as a way to recap my knowledge and learn new things, laying the ground blocks to build up and use as a way of directing my learning further and leading on to further study. This book is great for that and I really really enjoyed it. Would definitely recommend to anyone who had microbiology modules or units and needed help in their learning or for people interested in this field. It was a great reference book and one filled with great information.

[Jack White · Rating 3 out of 5]

Good, brief refresher course, but not detailed enough. It spent most of the time detailing biochemical processes and jumped around a lot.

[Amanda · Rating 5 out of 5]

this was actually interesting