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    Genetics - Laboratory Investigations (12th Edn)

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    Genetics - Laboratory Investigations (12th Edn)

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    furina.simplord1310
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    Genetics – Laboratory Investigations (12th edn)

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    Genetics - Laboratory Investigations (12th Edn)

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    BOOK REVIEWS 639

    architecture right through to the ®tness surfaces in the wild. techniques such as PCR, RFLPs and DNA ®ngerprinting.
    This is a book with accounts that will fascinate most biologists. Much of the human content is discussed in relation to the
    Certainly Endler's ®nal listing of sixteen questions shows how Human Genome Project where relevant, and also incorporated
    lively this ®eld is and could keep most researchers interested in are new ideas, photographs, data sets and updated references
    adaptive evolution active for life. and source material. All students' tastes are catered for with a
    wide variety of experimental organisms representing microbes,
    animals, plants and fungi. In particular the several human-
    Reference
    based investigations should appeal to most. The exercises on
    SINERVO, B., DOUGHTY, P., HUEY, R.B. AND ZAMUDIO, K. 1992. Allometric analysing ®ngerprint ridge numbers and patterns, and whether
    engineering: a causal analysis of natural selection on o€spring size. your urine smells foul after eating asparagus, are particularly
    Science, 258, 1927±1930. intriguing.
    I was very impressed with the organisation and layout of
    PAUL M. BRAKEFIELD this book. The text is written for degree-level students and is
    Institute of Evolutionary and Ecological Sciences accompanied by an Instructors Manual that includes hints,
    Leiden University sources of materials, and answers to the many questions posed.
    PO Box 9516 Each investigation is completely individual, independent and
    2300 RA Leiden designed for use with no necessary modi®cations. All relevant
    The Netherlands references, notes and appendices are included in each exercise.
    Indeed the pages are perforated and hole-punched for easy
    removal and ®ling. Each exercise has a relevant introduction to
    the investigation, very clearly stated objectives, and all other
    Genetics ± Laboratory Investigations (12th edn). Thomas R. information required for the exercise. Suitable data sheets for
    Mertens and Robert L. Hammersmith. Prentice Hall, New recording results, and relevant analyses are given, together
    Jersey. 2001. Pp. 282. Price $50.00, paperback. ISBN 0 13 with questions to test the understanding of the investigator.
    019330 5. I was disappointed that the book makes so little use of
    online web resources. With so many students having both an
    As a recent convenor for a genetics MSc. course, I was amazed interest in the Internet and also access to online computing
    how many students graduating with a degree in genetics lack facilities, I feel this is a weakness that should be addressed for
    practical laboratory experience and possess limited knowledge the next edition. Another shortcoming is that the book is so
    of classical genetics. A good foundation of laboratory inves- clearly aimed at an American readership with all data sets
    tigations is important to complement the theoretical informa- provided based on American examples. Again, online resourc-
    tion given in lectures and tutorials, but has been adversely es could overcome this.
    a€ected by the need to keep costs down in many academic I would certainly recommend the use of this book to anyone
    institutions in recent years. Genetics Ð Laboratory Investiga- engaged in formulating or revising a degree-level genetics
    tions, the twelfth edition of a book that has enjoyed success course.
    since its initial publication in 1952, addresses this problem. It is
    a compilation of practical exercises that form a strong COLIN FERRIS
    foundation in both classical genetics and more recent molecu- Department of Biological Sciences
    lar genetic techniques for students at degree level. Many of the University of Leicester
    investigations are fairly low budget, while for those that University Road
    include more expensive elements, cheaper options or sample Leicester LE1 7RH
    data sets are given as an alternative. For example, the exercise U.K.
    on PCR gives a manual procedure using dishes of heated oil as
    an alternative where no PCR machine is available.
    I was pleasantly surprised how much I enjoyed reading this The Century of the Gene. Evelyn Fox Keller. Harvard
    book! Although the investigations do form a logical progres- University Press, Cambridge, MA. 2000. Pp. 186. Price £15.95,
    sion through the book, it is clearly not designed to be read hardback. ISBN 0 674 00372 1.
    from cover to cover. However, for myself it was a short
    nostalgic trip through much of my own undergraduate degree Evelyn Fox Keller has been observing and re¯ecting on
    in genetics, and I was left wondering whether earlier editions of genetics for decades, ®rst as a molecular biologist, later as a
    this book had had any in¯uence on the classical genetics historian, best known for her biography of the corn geneticist
    practical classes I attended in the 1980s, such as using and Nobel Prizewinner Barbara McClintock, and as a philo-
    Drosophila stocks with curly wings and plum eye colour to sopher of science interested in gender and language. In The
    locate an unknown mutant on a particular chromosome, or Century of the Gene, Keller o€ers a new interpretation of the
    counting grey and black ascospores of Sordaria to investigate past of genetics and a manifesto for its future. As she sees it,
    linkage and crossing-over during meiosis. the transformation of genetics into genomics is a fundamental
    This edition brings the content right up-to-date within a transformation, but it will remain incomplete unless, together
    ®eld that is presently changing rapidly. The 26 exercises cover with new data and new techniques, there are new concepts and
    the range from classical Mendelian inheritance to molecular new words as well.

    Ó The Genetics Society of Great Britain, Heredity, 86, 638±640.

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