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The Cell: A Molecular Approach
The Cell: A Molecular Approach is an easily understood and concise introduction to the molecular biology of cells, ideally suited in length and complexity for undergraduate-level courses. This unique book has been crafted to meet the need of today's students and their teachers by combining the readability and cohesiveness of a single-authored text with comprehensive and up-to-date science.Unlike other larger books where only a small fraction of the content can be sampled or understood, The Cell's language and writing are so efficient and manageable that all the information in the book can be covered in a single semester, providing a good foundation in this subject.
The Cell presents a good balance of topics in a clean and concise manner and combines a lucid sketch of the history of molecular genetics with a thorough description of the techniques of modern molecular biology. This new text provides both the necessary fundamentals of this subject as well as the more advanced concepts but without getting lost in too many details. A text extensively reviewed by more than 70 scientific experts, The Cell is ideally suited in length and complexity for sophomore- and junior-level courses. The book focuses on the molecular biology of cells as a unifying theme, with topics such as developmental biology, the nervous system, the immune system, and plant biology being discussed as examples of more general principles. Reviews of selected Key Experiments and topics in Molecular Medicine highlight the experimental nature of modern cell biology and convey the excitement of research in this area.
The Cell presents a good balance of topics in a clean and concise manner and combines a lucid sketch of the history of molecular genetics with a thorough description of the techniques of modern molecular biology. This new text provides both the necessary fundamentals of this subject as well as the more advanced concepts but without getting lost in too many details. A text extensively reviewed by more than 70 scientific experts, The Cell is ideally suited in length and complexity for sophomore- and junior-level courses. The book focuses on the molecular biology of cells as a unifying theme, with topics such as developmental biology, the nervous system, the immune system, and plant biology being discussed as examples of more general principles. Reviews of selected Key Experiments and topics in Molecular Medicine highlight the experimental nature of modern cell biology and convey the excitement of research in this area.
673 pages, CD-ROM
First published January 1, 1996
About the author
Geoffrey M. Cooper
27 books142 followersGeoffrey M. Cooper is an award-winning author of medical thrillers and a 2023 Maine Literary Award Finalist in Crime Fiction. His experience as a former cancer researcher and scientific administrator, having held positions at Harvard Medical School and Boston University as professor, department chair, and associate dean, now provides extensive background for his novels. He lives in Ogunquit, Maine.
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Displaying 1 - 21 of 21 reviews
July 10, 2025
i’m adding this to my goodreads BC I READ THIS FROM START TO FINISH
all 20 chapters. the glossary. the index. even the table of contents (probably over 20 times)
textbook was not too great, it’s full of text blocks and over complicated at times. like why would you explain the full experiment behind a discovery in the middle of the sentence, without first explaining what that discovery is. i don’t need to know that AKT was discovered in mice, just tell me the pathway first!!!
barely any mention of plant biology (0/10).
overall, very enjoyable. maybe one of the few books that are over 700 pages that i’ve been so engaged with. the book tapped into my unlocked potential. also probably permanently changed my brain chemistry (for good or for bad, i’ll never know)
molcell2 was one of the best courses! now i will read real books and pray for my grade 🙏🏻
all 20 chapters. the glossary. the index. even the table of contents (probably over 20 times)
textbook was not too great, it’s full of text blocks and over complicated at times. like why would you explain the full experiment behind a discovery in the middle of the sentence, without first explaining what that discovery is. i don’t need to know that AKT was discovered in mice, just tell me the pathway first!!!
barely any mention of plant biology (0/10).
overall, very enjoyable. maybe one of the few books that are over 700 pages that i’ve been so engaged with. the book tapped into my unlocked potential. also probably permanently changed my brain chemistry (for good or for bad, i’ll never know)
molcell2 was one of the best courses! now i will read real books and pray for my grade 🙏🏻
March 31, 2009
lots of good illustrations, both schematic drawings with lumpy blobs for all the proteins and also really cool micrographs. i also liked the "key experiment" pages.
but the organization was bass ackwards. they started with chemistry, then DNA, then larger structures, until finally the cell cycle. so YOU NEVER KNEW THE BIGGER PICTURE. again and again, they would sort of hint at the larger context and then say "this is discussed in chapter 11" or whatever. the authors made the fatal mistake of so many teachers - they know the subject inside out, so they teach it from the inside out. it makes sense to them that way because they already know all the stuff from later chapters. but the student doesn't.
plus, they wrote with no personality at all. not one joke, anecdote, exclamation, etc., in the entire book.
finally, it was pretty clear that sometimes they wrote two pages and the publisher said "turn this into half a page" and so it became an ultradense series of technical sentences without explanation.
ah, well, i learned a ton, though. most interesting factoid: you can cut out two thirds of a rat's liver and it will grow back as good as new in a few days. wow.
but the organization was bass ackwards. they started with chemistry, then DNA, then larger structures, until finally the cell cycle. so YOU NEVER KNEW THE BIGGER PICTURE. again and again, they would sort of hint at the larger context and then say "this is discussed in chapter 11" or whatever. the authors made the fatal mistake of so many teachers - they know the subject inside out, so they teach it from the inside out. it makes sense to them that way because they already know all the stuff from later chapters. but the student doesn't.
plus, they wrote with no personality at all. not one joke, anecdote, exclamation, etc., in the entire book.
finally, it was pretty clear that sometimes they wrote two pages and the publisher said "turn this into half a page" and so it became an ultradense series of technical sentences without explanation.
ah, well, i learned a ton, though. most interesting factoid: you can cut out two thirds of a rat's liver and it will grow back as good as new in a few days. wow.
January 6, 2021
Horrible ,
it’s full of info , looks great and all but after a paragraph or two you can’t continue reading , your brain begs you to stop and it shuts down automatically.
You can’t even use it to sleep , sleeping after reading this brings horrific nightmares.
it’s full of info , looks great and all but after a paragraph or two you can’t continue reading , your brain begs you to stop and it shuts down automatically.
You can’t even use it to sleep , sleeping after reading this brings horrific nightmares.
November 5, 2007
like it or not, this is an important book for PostGrad student like me... *sigh*
Oh well, let's just take it as a light reading... *lol*
Oh well, let's just take it as a light reading... *lol*
September 9, 2014
The best book for cell biology.
Very illuminating and explanatory :)
It helped me a lot.
Very illuminating and explanatory :)
It helped me a lot.
September 13, 2014
Great book for cell and molecular biology
Currently Reading
October 24, 2015good book
August 16, 2018
Parte de mí, odio leerte.
November 19, 2025
Thanks for RUINING MY LIFE already. Too detailed
August 3, 2011
best book for cell biology
May 8, 2024
I teach cell biology and wanted to try a new textbook with a better online platform for our students. I started out with a great attitude and wanted to love this book. I just got to where I hated it! It just had too many details and didn't do a good job breaking things down. The active learning exercises were stupid. I just didn't like it at all and my students liked it even less.
September 28, 2023
Mostly easy to understand and nicely written with informative pictures. But I kept wondering if the author just stopped repeating the same thing in different words how much shorter the chapters would be...
January 20, 2019
I can´t compare it to other book because i studied all from this one, but it was a really nice read
June 24, 2020
I don't understand the hype about this book. Tge illustrations are beyond good but the text is inferior
November 17, 2023
i finished but at what cost
July 7, 2024
Lean este antes que el Karp, es más terminología friendly 🙂↕️
December 25, 2024
Oduzelo mi je 6 tjedana mog zivota, ali sam dobila 5🔥
Read
July 18, 2025No me lo he leído entero pero espero aprobar biología después de haber estado trabajándome los capítulos que caían 🙏
May 14, 2026
Helped me overview my studies while preparing for the admission exam , data analysis problems and questions at the end of each chapter are really helpful
September 13, 2013
an excellent book
December 11, 2013
This is really helpful to increase my acknowledgement of basic science.
Displaying 1 - 21 of 21 reviews