Larcher, W. Physiological plant ecology. 4th edn

At the coffee table, we sometimes philosophize about dauntingchallenges. Master students have their thesis in mind, PhD studentsmention their next research paper, staff members talk aboutthe review article they are trying to write. But we fall allsilent when we think about the enormous effort it takes to writea textbook. Such a daunting task is a true Sisyphean labour! Walter Larcher has indeed rolled his intellectual stone to thetop again, in the form of a revised and updated fourth editionof his textbook on ecophysiology. This new edition has the samenumber of pages as its     

Atlas of Human Parasitology, 4th edn

by Lawrence Ash and Thomas Orihel, American Society of Clinical Pathologists, Chicago, $155.00 (410 pages) ISBN 0 89189 399 7.     

Alberts, B., Johnson, A., Lewis, J., Raff, M., Roberts, K. and Walter, P. Molecular biology of the cell. 4th edn.

First edition, 1983; 2nd edition, 1989; 3rd edition, 1994; 4thedition, 2002. Any book that appears in so many editions insuch a relatively short space of time must be doing somethingright. And so it is, for Molecular Biology of the Cell (‘MBoC’as the authors refer to it) is arguably setting the pace—andthe standard—that other textbooks on the subject mustaspire to. Although not familiar with the previous incarnationsof MBoC, I do note that the line-up     

民族昆虫学简介

民族昆虫学是研究在非工业化社会中人与昆虫关系的科学。民族昆虫学的研究内容包括 :昆虫的食用、药用、观赏 ,利用昆虫娱乐和装饰 ,有害昆虫防治 ,昆虫崇拜和关于昆虫的神化传说等。研究民族昆虫学的方法有查阅文献和实地调查 ,两种方法相互补充。中国有许多民族处于偏远封闭的环境里 ,研究和挖掘他们与昆虫的相对独特的关系 ,吸收其成功的昆虫利用或防治经验 ,对促进各民族间交流和发展具有重要意义