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A carregar... A Computer Scientist's Guide to Cell Biology (edição 2007)por William W. Cohen (Autor)
Informação Sobre a ObraA Computer Scientist's Guide to Cell Biology por William W. Cohen
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This practical guide provides a succinct treatment of the general concepts of cell biology, furnishing the computer scientist with the tools necessary to read and understand current literature in the field. The book explores three different facets of biology: biological systems, experimental methods, and language and nomenclature. After a brief introduction to cell biology, the text focuses on the principles behind the most-widely used experimental procedures and mechanisms, relating them to well-understood concepts in computer science. The presentation of the material has been prepared for the reader’s quick grasp of the topic: comments on nomenclature and background notes can be ascertained at a glance, and essential vocabulary is boldfaced throughout the text for easy identification. Computer science researchers, professionals and computer science students will find this an incomparable resource and an excellent starting point for a more comprehensive examination of cell biology. "This concise book is an excellent introduction for computer scientists to the exciting revolution under way in molecular biology. It provides lucid, high-level descriptions of the fundamental molecular mechanisms of life, and discusses the computational principles involved. I wish this little gem was available when I was ‘learning the ropes’– it would have been my first choice of reading material." --Roni Rosenfeld, Carnegie Mellon University. Não foram encontradas descrições de bibliotecas. |
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Google Books — A carregar... GénerosSistema Decimal de Melvil (DDC)571.60285Natural sciences and mathematics Life Sciences, Biology Physiology and related subjects Cell biologyClassificação da Biblioteca do Congresso dos EUA (LCC)AvaliaçãoMédia:
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Professor Cohen is an expert in Machine Learning who took an interest in the applicability of his subject to bioinformatics and wrote this short book as a summary of his preliminary reading. It is not accessible to someone lacking a good high-school background in biology and organic chemistry; neither will it adequately refresh the details for one for whom the subjects have lain dormant for long. It will, however, prime the mind beautifully for the rest of the journey which it is presumed one to whom this book appeals intends to undertake.
The first section sketches DNA transcription and replication; the long middle section is a very detailed overview of some modern experimental techniques and the final brief section touches on the applications of computer science to bioinformatics.
I was struck particularly by Prof. Cohen’s metaphor for experimental biology: we are rather like giants smashing up great collections of minute and complicated machines and coarsely examining the aggregate detritus for a rough sense of the composition of the machines. (His metaphor is delightful extended: imagine a pile of personal computers laid out on a shag carpet, crushed by steamrollers, blown by the fan of a jet engine; the lighter parts blow further before the carpet snags them. We are left with bands of material graded from heavier to lighter and might conclude that a computer is composed of two or three sorts of metal and plastic organized in concentric shells.)
An illuminating section on reaction rates discusses molecular motion, the relative viscosities of cellular membrane and plasma (as butter to water), distances covered by diffusion (under random walk motion the time to cover a certain distance is as the square of the velocity, not linear with velocity) and contact probabilities, which may explain why diffusion is adequate in bacteria but that in larger cells reactions often take place along two dimensional membrane surfaces, where constrained motion increases the chances for reaction.
Other highlights: the behaviour of ion channels in nerve cells is nicely explained, protein gated channels a little less so (they are more complicated), discussion of energy transfer is too large a topic; the notes are merely a starting point.
In short; exactly as advertised, an excellent re-orientation and a guide to what to study next. ( )