5 stars (Depth and Accuracy) - Campbell and Reece are best known as the authors of the hefty and excellent "Biology", now in it's 6th edition used by undegraduate biology majors and AP Biology students. "Essential Biology" uses a different approach. The authors have packed a great deal into this amazingly small textbook. I recently reviewed a huge number of introductory biology texts for adoption in our school district. We use Campbell and Reece's Biology, 6th edition for our AP biology course but were looking for a textbook to use with our 9th grade honors biology students. After a lengthy comparison of textbooks we picked "Essential Biology" based on several things. First we found the book to be accurate, readable, and concise. We felt that it would give the students a depth of understanding in the core biological principles so that they would be ready when they moved on to AP biology later in their high school career. Instead of trying to "cover" everything under the biological sun, "Essential Biology" focuses on four core biological topics: cells, genetics, evolution, and ecology. It's 20 chapters are broken up into these 4 units and does a wonderful job of pulling it all together. Other textbooks certainly cover more material but with less depth. What is the use of having a huge textbook that the students either never finish or rush through with no real understanding? This is a textbook that the students can dig into and throughly understand during one course. It is supported by CD-ROM's and on-line material. The website provides activities, on-line labs, quizes, and other practice. Students can print out results or e-mail them to their teachers. I would recommend this text as one for use in a non-majors biology course or as an advanced high school biology introductory course. ... Benjamin Cummings :: Science & Biology :: Science&Mathematics :: Science :: Life Sciences - Biology - General :: Eric J Simon :: Jane B Reece :: Neil A Campbell :: :: Essential Biology- Second Edition
5 stars (Thoroughly enjoyed) - Wonderful audio presentation of the Bill Moyer interview with Joseph Campbell. We originally checked it out from the library for a road trip, but just had to have our own copy. Listened to it twice on a recent cross-country road trip. 3 stars (Amazing Mythological Comparisons) - This is written in an "interview" form. I probably would get more out of the DVD format. It has very interesting comparisons of our life to mythology. Although very interesting, some ideas seem a little far-fetched. 4 stars (Intriguing, important but sometimes contradictory) - In our current secular culture where everything is de-mythologized, this is an important work. Campbell shows how the existential angst and meaninglessnes of modern toil is inextricably linked with our devaluation of mythology in the 21st century. From a philosophical point of view I especially admired the colourful way in which Campbell accounted for the dualism of the human predicament eg. In the Garden of Eden fall from unity into the knowledge of "good and evil". Buddhist conceptions of duality were also well integrated. However, in parts I found Campbell's message somewhat contradictory. Especially concerning the gnostic view that the material world is "bad", and the eternal world of the spirit, our real home. In some instances he seems to support this gnostic view, in others he wants us to embrace the tactile reality we find ourselves in, submerging ourselves in its goodness. Perhaps I just misunderstood. I would welcome enlightenment from fellow readers. Perhaps the greatest "take-away" for me was the value of investing myth into your everday world. As the Postmodern philosopher Rorty said: there is no true view of the world (even the scientific one), only a view which is the most useful. Personally I often find the meaninglessness of the materialist view pretty useless (for me, anyway), and a view rich with myth and mystical connotation might be infinitely more livable.... Anchor :: Philosophy & General :: Campbell :: Joseph :: United States :: Sociology of Religion :: Sociology :: Religious :: Religion historians :: Religion :: Philosophy :: Mytholo :: The Power of Myth
5 stars (good vendor) - The book was expensive, but a better price than new for sure. It came in the quality as advertised. I recommend this vendor. 5 stars (A great biology primer) - I love the Biology book by Campbell and Reece subtitled 'Concepts & Connections', so I thought I would check out this edition also. I first studied biology nearly twenty-five years ago with a huge and lovely biology book written by an author whose name unfortunately escapes me. I loved that book, and have always judged future biology texts against that one; this one measures up well against my memory of that text. After an interesting introduction, which talks about discovery-based science in addition to theoretical/hypothesis science with interesting examples. The introduction, 'Exploring Life', leads right into the first unit, which deals with the basic chemistry needed to understand the processes of life. Water, Carbon and molecular chemistry at a basic level are explained, as these are the building-blocks of life on earth from a chemical standpoint. The book continues on an upward progression from here. The next unit is on the cell, introducing both single-celled organisms as well as how cells work in both plants and animals. Photosynthesis is explained in good detail. The unit following deals with genetics, a very 'in the news' area of biology today. This looks at genetics in plants (the early experiments of Mendel are explained here), animals, bacteria and viruses, as well as the more complex structures of DNA. The unit on evolution looks both at plant and animal evolution, as well as the way evolutionary ideas can influence the way species develop in the modern, changing world. The subsequent units look at biological diversity, the plant kingdom, and the animal kingdom. The final unit on ecology brings all things together in one eco-system in which plants, animals and environment influence each other and co-exist. In this book, each chapter focuses on only a f... Benjamin Cummings :: Science & Biology :: Science&Mathematics :: Science :: Life Sciences - Biology - General :: Jane B Reece :: Neil A Campbell :: :: Biology (7th Edition)
ADRIFT Generator is a Windows application which allows you to create your own Text Adventure. Instead of having to learn a new adventure programming language, Generator takes all the difficulty away leaving you with a simple, yet powerful game designer. Adventures are built up by adding rooms, objects, tasks, events and characters... Campbell Wild :: adrift :: campbell :: wild :: games :: adventure :: rpg :: adrift :: ADRIFT
4 stars (satisfactory) - i ordered it from the new section and the book, when i received it, had some pages highlighted and the cd that came with the book was already opened. 4 stars (a bit mislead) - fast delivery was great, but misleading with the amount of cover damage and highlighted text--in worse shape than i understood. 5 stars (Excellent) - I used the 5th edition of this book, but I've seen the 6th edition, and think the improvements (especially in terms of the diagrams and additions to the accompanying CD) are worth the upgrade. This is an excellent resource for anyone interested in biology. It's the gold standard for a reason. Clear writing, excellent diagrams and pictures, and with an appropriate amount of depth for a college intro-biology course or for AP Bio. Don't forget to use the CD as a resource, since it makes complicated processes like the Krebs cycle a lot easier to understand. An animation is worth a thousand pictures. ... Benjamin Cummings :: Science & Biology :: Study & Teaching :: Science&Mathematics :: Science :: Life Sciences - Biology - General :: Biology :: Jane B Reece :: Neil A Campbell :: :: Biology- Sixth Edition
