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Library | Item Barcode | Call Number | Material Type | Item Category 1 | Status |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|
Searching... | 30000004733576 | QH302.5 M33 2003 | Reference Book | 1:BOOKREF | Searching... |
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Summary
Summary
Derived from the world-renowned McGraw-Hill Dictionary of Scientific and Technical Terms, Sixth Edition, this vital reference offers a wealth of essential information in a portable, convenient, quick-find format. Whether you're a professional, a student, a writer, or a general reader with an interest in science, there is no better or more authoritative way to stay up-to-speed with the current language of bioscience or gain an understanding of its key ideas and concepts. Written in clear, simple language understandable to the general reader, yet in-depth enough for scientists, educators, and advanced students, The McGraw-Hill Dictionary of Bioscience, Second Edition: * Has been extensively revised, with 18,000 entries encompassing the language of the life sciences * Includes synonyms, acronyms, and abbreviations * Provides pronunciations for all terms * Covers more than 20 areas of life science, including anatomy, biochemistry, botany, evolution, genetics, microbiology, physiology, and zoology, and has been expanded to cover other important biomedical sciences such as forensics, neuroscience, pathology, pharmacology, and veterinary science * Includes an appendix containing tables of useful data and information * Is based on the McGraw-Hill Dictionary of Scientific and Technical Terms - for more than a quarter-of-a-century THE standard international reference Carefully reviewed for clarity, completeness, and accuracy, the McGraw-Hill Dictionary of Bioscience, Second Edition, offers a standard of excellence unmatched by any similar publication.
Reviews 1
Choice Review
McGraw-Hill derives these inexpensive subject-specific dictionaries from its Dictionary of Scientific and Technical Terms (6th ed., CH, Mar'03), covering 110,000 terms. Libraries could not go wrong purchasing this recognized standard reference--either the parent or its offspring. Choosing which to purchase will probably present the greater challenge. Students may be more likely to favor these more focused titles, whereas librarians may be more enthralled with the larger, more encompassing mother work. Cases in point: in the parent, one observes the wide-ranging impact of Carl Friedrich Gauss, finding 44 eponymous "Gaussian" terms used in various fields from statistics to electromagnetism. Far fewer are found in each of the offspring. Where but in the parent work does one discover that "cricket" is both an orthopteran insect and a device used to divert water at the intersection of roof and chimney, and that "gut" is a term used in geology as well as anatomy? The offspring reproduce the definitions of terms exactly as they appear in the mother work, with pronunciation but without illustrations. The appropriate appendixes are retained in the smaller volumes, but biographical entries are dropped. McGraw-Hill has competition, notably from Oxford and Facts on File, which also publish inexpensive subject-specific science dictionaries. Oxford and Facts on File include illustrations but lack pronunciations. McGraw-Hill tends to include more appendixes, such as geological time scales and electronic symbols, Oxford includes more biographical information, and Facts on File targets its dictionaries to secondary schools, usually covering fewer terms at greater length than McGraw-Hill. A notable exception is McGraw-Hill's Dictionary of Astronomy. Although priced the same as the others, this is the briefest of the McGraw-Hill series, containing 2,800 entries in 180 pages. For the same price, The Facts on File Dictionary of Astronomy, ed. by Valerie Illingworth and John Clark (4th ed., 2000), contains 3,700 terms in over 500 pages, and Oxford's A Dictionary of Astronomy, ed. by Ian Ridpath (rev. ed., 2003), 4,000 entries in over 500 pages at an even lower price. With the exception of astronomy, libraries will be well served by the McGraw-Hill titles. ^BSumming Up: Highly recommended. Public and undergraduate libraries. T. R. Faust Burlington College
Table of Contents
| Staff | p. iv |
| Preface | p. v |
| How to Use the Dictionary | p. vi |
| Fields and Their Scope | p. viii |
| Pronunciation Key | p. x |
| A-Z Terms | p. 1 |
| Appendix | p. 641 |
| Equivalents of commonly used units for the U.S. Customary System and the metric system | p. 643 |
| Conversion factors for the U.S. Customary System, metric system, and International System | p. 644 |
| ABO blood group system | p. 648 |
| Amino acid abbreviations | p. 648 |
| Universal (standard) genetic code | p. 649 |
| Some functions of essential vitamins | p. 650 |
| Major groups of viruses | p. 652 |
| Cranial nerves of vertebrates | p. 653 |
| Classification of living organisms | p. 654 |
