Ian Books

This year's selection includes William Langewiesche's probing investigation in Vanity Fair of the slaughter of twenty-four Iraqis in Haditha; C. J. Chivers's chilling account in Esquire of the 2004 hostage crisis in Beslan, which killed 331 people, 186 of them children; Susan Casey's revelation in Best Life of a virtually unknown, Texas-sized garbage dump resting at the bottom of the Pacific ocean; and Andrew Corsello's harrowing portrait in GQ of Robert Mugabe's mad rule and two men-a white farmer and a fiery black priest-who strive for forgiveness instead of hate. The collection also includes Vanessa Grigoriadis's hilarious portrait of fashion icon Karl Lagerfeld in New York Magazine; Christopher Hitchens's profile of survivors of Agent Orange in Vanity Fair; Sandra Tsing Loh's coverage of the stay-at-home-mommy debate in the Atlantic Monthly; Paul Theroux's thoughts on the dangers of anthropomorphism and our misconceptions about birds in the Smithsonian; Janet Reitman's unraveling of the mysteries of Scientology in Rolling Stone; and the work of nine other exceptional writers.

The third edition of "Gene Cloning" is a fully revised and updated version of this introductory text on the subject. It is longer and contains greater detail, yet is still aimed at undergraduates and at those who have little or no previous experience of cloning techniques. There are two additions to the contents. The first is a chapter on the polymerase chain reaction, a technique that has assumed great importance in molecular biology. The second is a final chapter on plant genetic engineering, reflecting the increasing research interest, and general concern, in promoting environmentally sensitive practices in agriculture. It is in a larger format than previous editions and is printed in two colours. It should be of interest to first and second year life sciences undergraduates, especially those reading biochemistry, molecular biology, biotechnology, cell biology and medicine.