Cell Biology by the Numbers

If you have computational or systems biology questions and need to know a size, density, energy of nearly anything to get started, this is the book for you. Extensive work covering many levels of measurements gives you the basic data to plug into your estimates and equations. This information is not easily found anywhere else and is presented in a smoothly written narrative that is such a pleasure to read. I find myself just browsing the book for fun. After a move I actually lost my first copy and was so horrified I invested in a second. If the old one turns up, I'll give it to a friend.

I have had the downloaded version for a couple of years. This is an invaluable book for anyone trying to understand systems. One is always asking, "How big". For example when working in the intersection of the nano technology world and the bio world size matters. How big is a bacterium, a protein, a nano particle and they why do they do what they do. Not only does this book have many significant numbers, but they present in a brilliant manner how they got there as well as the implications. Size, quantity, parameters such as diffusion constants, all have critical part to play in developing new understanding. One can go through the massive texts on cell biology or genetics and never have a feeling for how big something is, how frequently cells divide, or more critically how to get or reasonably infer the answer. This book is that essential bridge. It is not a handbook, it is a guide to understanding. Of all books, I have kept this next to my desk and have referred to it constantly. I would suggest that anyone who wants to truly understand nature obtain this book for the daily use! Great job!

This little gem provides some interesting and important quantitative perspectives on cell and molecular biology. Most texts don't cover this viewpoint adequately, and quantitative thinking greatly enriches our understanding of the inner workings of cells. This first edition still has a number of typos and small errors, but nothing too distracting. I really enjoy the 'back of the envelop' sections where the authors sketch simple calculations and implementations of basic physical principles to reveal some fascinating insights.

Nice book, strongly recommend the book and the seller

This book is a significant contribution to numerical biology. It addresses 100 questions related to cells, for example, cell volumes and cell component sizes, absolute numbers of many biological objects, concentrations, signaling, energies, forces, information content, and time scales. The order of magnitude calculations were a useful tool used throughout the text. However, the vignettes did not consistently address the ramifications or significance of the data to the cell’s functions. My main complaint is the difficulty of finding the answer to the questions posed by each chapter. Rather than first provide the answer and then explain the context, a discussion and/or history followed with the answer buried in subsequent paragraphs. Also, although this book is not intended for non-biology majors, a glossary would have been helpful along with abbreviations used (prior to first chapter). Another distracting feature was the position of the text on the page, ½ inch from binding with 2 inch of space on outer edge; what was the publisher thinking? Even with these flaws, the book deserves a rating of four out of five because of the comprehensive coverage. Readers will not be disappointed, it is a valuable approach to the study of cell biology.

This book is fundamental to understand biological processes in their true nature. At the nanoscale of biology, distances, time, concentrations and relative numbers, speed, diffusion, and all properties of matter, have a different meaning than at the scale of our own bodies. A must read.

Love it. This should absolutely be required reading for any graduate student in molecular and cellular biology. I greatly appreciate all of this excellent information being compile into an accessible and enjoyable format. Thank you.

Easy reading. Great way of presenting information.

Sehr gute Darstellung der quantitativen Prozesse in der Biologie, speziell auch im Menschen. Die Autoren versuchen gar nicht erst, Werte anzugeben, deren Genauigkeit eh nicht sonderlich hoch ist, dafür aber geben sie schöne Zusammenfassungen und Abschätzungen und das hoch professionell, kein Gelaber keine Rum-ge-rate sondern Fakten noch dazu sehr gut zu lesen. Wenn Sie die Abläufe in einer Zelle quantitativ verstehen wollen, ist das das richtige Buch. Wenn Sie die grundlegenden Prozesse (Stichwort Krebs-Zyklus) erst mal kennenlernen wollen, dann ist das hier nicht das Optimum. Das Buch ist in Englisch. Ich gebe es bisweilen Studenten an die Hand, wenn diese das Dalton-Gewicht eines Enzyms mit 4 Nachkommastellen angeben und mich entgeistert fragen, was das Problem sei.

Needless to say, the book is wonderfully done. However, I bought the Kindle version from Amazon, and the Kindle application for Mac pc is appallingly awful. I wonder how they can make it so user-unfriendly. I'm looking for other ways to read the book instead of using Kindle, which doesn't even allow you to read the book in spread. So frustrative.

I've not quite finished reading this book, but I'm very pleased with what it offers - almost encyclopaedic numeric measurements of all important aspects of cellular biology, never forgetting the issue of uncertainties in the figures eg, std error, reasonable no. of significant figures, etc. Certainly a valuable refrernce source for all of us interested in the subject. An index of all abbreviations for units used would, I think, make it even better.

I am a researcher in molecular biology, fresh out of my PhD, and I've just got this on my mailbox yesterday having followed "BioNumbers" (bionumbers.hms.harvard.edu/) for a while. Let's just say that I feel that, in it's own way, this is the best book I've ever read in my area. In this business, we rely on our own mental images (call it visualization, imagination et al.) to generate hypotheses about how molecules work inside a cell, and I feel this book acts as a great anchor for said process. However that's not all. If you also happen to have actual FUN imagining such things, I can't think of anything else I want to do right now more than from reading this book - and it's great diagrams - repeatedly. Worth it. Really. A big thank you to the authors and illustrator, you've done an awesome job!

This book is a fantastic collection of information regarding the scales and numbers that make up the cell. How many molecules are there in a bacterium? How long is the DNA? How long does it take to transcribe a gene? And much more... The illustrations are very insightful and clear. All data shown is properly referenced with citations for published experimental work in peer reviewed reputable journals. A real treasure trove for all biology students, teachers, researchers, health practitioner and all curious people in general. Highly recommended.