The second edition of Through the Microscope is now complete. The second edition has new figures, improved clarity, updated legends and the removal errors and typos. This should make the experience with the book that much better. You can enjoy the book in two ways.
- Purchase a subscription to the web site for $30, which gives you access to all the content
- Purchase the hard copy of the textbook, which also includes a free subscription to the website for $55. The textbook is available for sale at lulu dot com. Click on the button below.
Gary and I have spent the past month combing through the text book looking for errors and clarifying passages that students have had trouble with. Hundreds of errors and typos have been removed and many figures have been clarified or improved. The book is now in a much more polished state than it was just a few weeks ago. In the next week, a new print edition will be sent to the printer and will be ready for order. Look for an announcement soon.
For those who like the website, but would really like a hard copy to be able to take with them, the authors are pleased to present.
Through the Microscope
The website, excluding chapter 26, is available as a book from lulu.com. This is a paperback book and is a faithful rendering of the text. This was made possible by the development of an application to render the entire website as a pdf file that lulu.com can then publish. To keep costs low, the process is nearly automatic (well it does take about a day to get things in order and verify that it is rendered correctly). What this does mean is that the formatting is not beautiful, but the text is completely usable. If you want a hard copy of the web site, you now have an outlet. The price of the text has been set at $55.00
A major editing and revision to the textbook has just been completed. New information and plenty of rewrites will hopefully make the book even more useful.
Several users have requested them, so two new features have been added to the textbook.
- When doing a search, the results now list the chapter and article number
- The tools menu, visible when reading the book, is now sticky. It will not scroll off the screen as you move down the page. This should make it easier to use the tools. Note that this feature does not work in Internet Explorer because Microsoft refuses to follow the web standards. If you use a windows computer, I suggest you use Firefox instead. It is a much better browser.
If you are interested in purchasing a subscription to Through the Microscope, please follow the directions listed in Buying Through the Microscope. It is very important that you first log in or sign up as a user before you try to purchase the textbook.
This site is a completely updated and expanded version of the previous microbiology textbook located at the Department of Bacteriology. Features of the new textbook include....
- Expanded content: A full 25 chapters is available covering many aspects of microbiology. A detailed table of contents listing every article in the book is available.
- New tools: Users can use the virtual highlighter to emphasize important passages in the book they want to remember using the Toggle Highlight function available in the tools menu.
- Full search: The book is fully searchable.
- Quick quizzes: Quizzes are available after every few sections to allow the reader to test their comprehension and expand their thinking about important subjects
- Complete figures: All figures have been completed for the book, including still graphics, table, animations, and videos
If you are interested, try out the sample chapters by logging in as test user. Username:TestUser, password: tryitout. You can then explore two chapters, Bacterial Structure and Animal defenses against microbes. If you want access to all the content, pay the low subscription fee of $30 to access the entire textbook.