FREE: Cells and Organelles

The listing, Cells and Organelles has ended.

The purpose of the Modern Biology Series is to introduce the college biology student--as well as the gifted secondary school student and all interested readers--both to the concepts unifying the fields within biology and to the diversity that makes each field unique".

Cells and Organelles was published in 1970, and so faces many challenges in remaining relevant to readers today. The authors wrote that they wanted to teach the readers about both past achievements in the field of biology and also the problems still awaiting a solution. However some of the problems, such as appreciating the mechanisms of DNA replication, are now well understood. Also their chapters on modern technology and its application to biology would not be accurate information for a student to draw upon. Other information in the book is outdated because of a change of view in the scientific community, such as the use of the classification protozoa. Protozoa are now classified under the kingdom Protista, though this kingdom has come under much debate. Thus, using this book to learn about cells and their organelles would not be a wise decision because so much more information has been discovered over the last 36 years.

However, if the reader is well learned, he might find it interesting to look into the past and see how science has progressed. The book also has many excellent photographs and diagrams that are still entirely correct and could be used as learning material. If you had a very good understanding of the cell organelles, you could contrast the present information with that of 1970. An uninformed reader would not be able to make the distinction between what was considered true and what is considered true, and he would end up learning the wrong material. Thus Cells and Organelles today serves more as a look at the past and its technology and information than as an educational manual.