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CHOICE Review

This is a particularly well written book with an agreeable style uncommon in so many other scientific works. In addition to being extensively referenced from the scientific point of view, it is sprinkled with quotations from widely varying sources, from the Talmud to The Rubaiyat of Omar Khayyam. This book would be a good textbook and source for an upper-division student since it presupposes some chemical and biochemical background. Harold provides good introductions to the concepts of energy, work, and entropy. He then turns to the production of energy by respiration, fermentation, and photosynthesis, followed by a discussion of how energy production is coupled to useful work, i.e., processes that require energy input and that are essential to the cell. Harold features the central role of adenosine triphosphate in energy storage and the importance of ionic gradients across membranes. The result is a good overview of bioenergetics, not limited to individual phenomenon but with these principles extended to organelles, cells, and whole organisms. Recommended for college and university biology collections.-J.A. Kelly, University of Connecticut