For many of us, these simple rewards are suf The purpose of this briefforeword is unchanged from the first edition; it is simply to make you, ficiently gratifying so that we have chosen to the reader, hungry for the scientific feast that spend our scientific lives studying these unusual follows. These four volumes on the prokaryotes creatures. In these endeavors many of the strat offer an expanded scientific menu that displays egies and tools as well as much of the philos the biochemical depth and remarkable physi ophy may be traced to the Delft School, passed ological and morphological diversity of prokar on to us by our teachers, Martinus Beijerinck, yote life. The size ofthe volumes might initially A. J. Kluyver, and C. B. van Niel, and in turn discourage the unprepared mind from being at passed on by us to our students. tracted to the study of prokaryote life, for this In this school, the principles of the selective, enrichment culture technique have been devel landmark assemblage thoroughly documents oped and diversified; they have been a major the wealth of present knowledge. But in con force in designing and applying new principles fronting the reader with the state of the art, the Handbook also defines where more work needs for the capture and isolation of microbes from to be done on well-studied bacteria as well as nature. For me, the "organism approach" has on unusual or poorly studied organisms. provided rewarding adventures.
From the reviews of the second edition:
"The second, expanded edition of The Prokaryotes has been extensively rewritten and restructured to reflect the many advances that have occurred in bacteriology during the past decade. Well over 250 eminent, internationally recognized scientists have served as authors for its more than 220 chapters. ... The Prokaryotes, Second Edition, will undoubtedly become a prime reference source for all biologists interested in theoretical and applied microbiology, microbial ecology, and microbial genetics." (February, 1992)
"The present edition of The Prokaryotes appeared some three years after the publication of the last volume of the most recent edition of Bergey’s Manual. ... The many illustrations are well-chosen and uniformly excellent and the diagrams ... are crisp, clear and well laid out. The well-known house style of Springer-Verlag has been used to excellent effect ... . In the perspective of time the influence of the Prokaryotes will be seen as very substantial indeed. That is why its wide availability must be ensured." (M. Sussman, Letters in Applied Microbiology, October 1992)
"This four-volume second edition, appearing 11 years after the first, with a somewhat altered subtitle, is a monumental and highly successful undertaking by 276 contributors covering logically, comprehensively, and authoritatively most aspects of prokaryotic biology in 237 separately authored articles. ... Most articles have photos and are richly referenced. Any microbiologist ... can browse through the book (even in areas he or she knows well), learn something, and enjoy it." (ASM News, Vol. 58, November, 1992)
"The Prokaryotes, as its subtitle indicates, seeks to be a handbook on the biology of bacteria. ... The organism-oriented approach to the subject led to a major discovery that had a great impact on the entire biology community. ... All the chapters are written by leading experts in the field. The four volumes include a comprehensive index, which makes them easy to use. The printing quality is excellent." (Volkmar Braun, American Scientist, Vol. 80, 1992)
"This is a much improved edition of what already was an outstanding publication. The Prokaryotes is by far the most comprehensive treatise in microbiology available today. ... In summary, this is an impressive work of more than 200 specialists that should be of great interest to all microbiologists. A very thorough index with extensive cross reference facilities the finding of the topics of interest for the eventual reader." (Jorge E. Galan, The Quarterly Review of Biology, Vol. 69, March 1994)
