OUTSTANDING!

from: "Jewish-American History on the Web"

This collection of lectures presented to Professor David Balme is a superb inquiry on Aristotle's natural philosophy by several of the most important contributors to contemporary understanding of the philosopher of the Lyceum, such as Allan Gotthelf, James G. Lennox, G.E.L. Owen, David Furley and Pierre Pellegrin. The book is a masterwork of aristotelian studies that could not be forgotten by those whose aim is understanding Aristotle's conception of nature in an analytical way, and after its publication no academic dissertations on this subject could be accepted without its very slow reading.

Dr. Francisco Chorão (Lisbon, European Community

The main purpose of the book is to remove any phobia one might have towards biology. It neatly explains that Biologists do not know everything about cells (a common misconception of non-biologists). It also shows how they know as much as they know today. Finally, it has passionate interviews from the researchers who say why they continue to do biology daily.

The material is basic enough to be followed, at the same time, informative enough to go to the next level - understanding how genes work. I myself have now become a researcher in biology, thanks to this book. If you have never done biology ever in your life, this book is for you.

As those who are familiar with Asking About Life know, this is a textbook with a philosophy. That philosophy is to present biology not as a canonical set of facts about life, but as a dynamic, ongoing dialogue with nature, in which real people who happen to be scientists ask meaningful questions and take understandable steps over time to discover answers to them. The book mixes an engaging narrative style, a strong historical perspective, great examples, and authoritative factual knowledge into an eminently readable, extremely informative, and scientifically impeccable text. As a result, a student or reader can turn to this book not simply to learn about the structure of DNA or how the human immune system functions, but also about Rosalind Franklin's role in discovering the double helix and about why HIV "continues to perplex medical researchers." And, as shown by the book's section headings (How Do Zygotes Cleave? How Does Gastrulation Set Up the Three-Layered Structure?), it embodies the truth that the best scientific questions start not with "what" but with "how."

Asking About Life is also full of beautiful, crystal-clear photos and illustrations, many of which, like the text, do a wonderful job of depicting not just static objects, but dynamic processes.

I can't imagine a better biology textbook.

Robert Adler, Ph.D.,author of Science Firsts: From the Creation of Science to the Science of Creation (Wiley & Sons, Sept. 2002).