Life sciences have become an indomitable force in science and they exert an inordinate amount of influence on the wider world as well. Medical research has a wide-ranging set of implications for the society in general. Research paper in medicine and related fields have proliferated almost beyond bounds in recent years, and it makes it hard for even the experts and the insiders to fully understand and be on top of the recent findings. The process of peer review provides some amount of checks and balances on the quality of those papers, but the mare fact of publication should not be an indication of the quality of research, or even its accuracy. Ultimately the burden of determining these important aspects of biomedical research rests on the readers of those papers, which in most cases are other scientists and researchers.

This collection of articles on biomedical papers is intended primarily for the practitioners of this kind of research. It is written with a graduate student and/or recent entrant into the field. The book is a collection of “primers” on various techniques and laboratory practices that are encountered in most modern biomedical research. It is fairly comprehensive and covers most of the main research paradigms now in use. Each “primer” is written as a self-contained paper, all with introduction, charts, conclusion and references. Information in this book is detailed, well backed up and constructive. It’s a useful collection to have around in any personal research library.

My main objection to this volume concerns the quality of writing. Scientists are not necessarily known for their prose, but even with these relatively low standards I think this collection suffers from not being terribly well-written and well-organized. Many authors jump from one idea to the next with almost careless abandon. The topics are often not too well organized, and the authors assume too much of an inside knowledge from its readers. The book could have certainly used a fair dose of content and presentation editing.

This book provides a lot of useful information, but pedagogically it falls short.