ISBN9780495119128

My university uses this book for the two-semester biochem sequence for BSc Chemistry/Biochemistry students. It's a well-written book, overall -- lots of information but not a very dense "scientific" read. The best part is the way the authors keep tying things back to reality ... sidebars explain how the dynamics of protein folding affect Alzheimer's disease, or what protease inhibition means for the development of HIV drugs.

The figures are aesthetically pleasing and really help to clarify descriptions in the text. The only problem is that the figures are usually a couple pages away from the text they refer to. For example, when describing the mechanism of chymotrypsin cleavage, it would make a lot more sense to put all the text on the left page and the mechanism/structures on the right page. Instead, the text is about three pages before the mechanism, meaning the reader has to keep flipping back and forth trying to understand what is going on. It's like that in most if not all cases. Not a big deal, but it's the sort of thing the layout editor should have realized when putting the book together. Maybe they'll fix it in the fourth edition.

Regardless, this is a very good biochem book. I'd recommend it for an undergraduate student of chemistry or biochemistry.

This book is very detailed and covers a wide range of bio-chemistry information.

This book has been very helpful in understanding the complex topics in biochemistry such as protein folding. Very well written for the beginning biochemistry student who only has a general background in chemistry and biology

This is very well rounded book. Do not pay any heed to the reviwers who gave it a lower rating. The truth is biochemistry is not an easy subject and you have to work hard at it. If you are willing to work hard and are willing to take the time to read the book and do the end of chapter problems you will succeed. Some reviewers suggested that they struggled through two semesters of biochem with this book, that is not the books fault. In order to study a book of this magnitude one requires a very strong background in molecular biology, organic chemistry and some physics. Otherwise don't bother with this book or taking up biochem as your field of study!

Good organization, but the authors try to make the text beautiful to read. They are very vague with important details, using terms like 'mileu' to describe components, when you really need to know what the components actually are!!