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Title: Bioinformatics For Dummies (For Dummies (Math & Science))
ISBN: 0470089857
Author:
Jean-Michel, Ph. D. Claverie
Cedric, Ph.D. Notredame
Publicate Date: 2006-12-18
Publish: 2006-12-18
List Price: $29.99
Average Customer Rating: 4.5
Format: Paperback
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Amazon Lowest New Price: $15.41
Amazon Lowest Used Price: $12.64
Amazon Merchant Price: $19.79
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| Customer Review: |
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1: Thorough, in-depth introduction. The "for dummies" is misleading
Many people are derisive about the "for Dummies" series, believing them to be too simplistic and sometimes even an insult to their intelligence. That can hardly apply to this book, as there is nothing "dummy" about it. You need a significant background in biology and chemistry in order to understand most of it. You need to understand the amino acid structure of proteins, the structure of DNA and many fundamental principles of data analysis. Some knowledge of the structure and operations of databases is also needed. The authors include a large number of web sites containing additional information and that can run analyses.
The coverage is so thorough and detailed that this is the only "for dummies" book that I have seen that could honestly be recommended as a college text. And not just at the freshman level either.
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2: Using the free software on internet sites to help your research
The first chapter is a short review of DNA and RNA sequences, amino acids, and protein. The other chapters teach you to use the free software found on the Internet to work with your research. Information is also given which helps explain some biochemicals. My skills are in Software Development using C++ language, and I need more information on biochemicals to understand the problems and to develop algorithms to solve them.
My only criticism is that I would like the book to give more biochemical theory before taking up the subject of Internet software.
Overall, this is a good beginner's book on biochemistry.
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3: Good
I am a couple years into a PhD in bioinformatics, but this is the book I started with. I knew some biology and some computer science, but I still found a lot of the databases, etc. confusing and the field has a decided lack of simplified documentation (though it is getting better).
Of course, bioinformatics is a pretty broad topic and no book could possibly cover everything.
If you do not know any biology at all you probably should also get a basic text on genetics/molecular biology (or read thema at the NCBI web site books section for free). You don't need anything in depth to read the dummies book, just at the level of an introductory biology book. Hint: DNA to RNA, RNA to Protein. And you want to know why proteins are similar because proteins with similar amino acid sequences often have similar chemical properties and therefore similar functions, so if you know what one protein does you can guess what a protein like it probably does.
:-)
And despite the name of the book the authors are REAL bioinformaticists (T-Coffee rocks!)
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4: Yes, It's Really Written at the For Dummies Level.
This book kind of blew me away. Bioinformatics is such a big word.
Then in the second chapter they tell you 'How Most People Use Bioinformatics.' And all of a sudden they have you on line to the National Library of Medicine at the National Institute of Health. They have you looking at protein sequences, and you even understand what they are saying.
This is a 'For Dummies' book. It is written in their traditional style, assuming that you know very little -- well to be sure they say they are making the assumption that 'You likely have a background in molecular biology. If you don't - or if you need to brush up on your molecular biology - Chapter 1 gives you a brief overview of the basics.'
I found that the first few chapters went down pretty easily. By part IV it had gone further than I wanted to go, and I quit reading.
BUT if I were going to be taking a course in bioinformatics, or even thinking about taking such a course, or just looking at a degree in biology, I'd spend a week or two getting around this book. It's written a hell of a lot better than any text you're likely to get assigned, and at its price it's quite a deal.
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5: Great introductory text
This is an excellent introduction to Bioinformatics. It does assume some very basic knowledge of biology- perhaps a couple of paragraphs could help the total newbies.
Have you noticed that reviews of bioinformatics books tend to follow certain patterns? The Computer Scientists and mathematicians complain that there is not enough detail about the algorithms, the biologists complain that they could not get through the math, and everyone complains that there is not enough detail about their favorite programs! Let us face the fact that this is a very broad field, and most people that want to learn about it will never design algorithms.
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