Since the last edition of this book appeared, more than five million scientific papers have been published. There has been a parallel increase in the quantity of digital information: new data on genome sequences, protein interactions, molecular structures, and gene expression—all stored in vast databases. The challenge, for both scientists and textbook writers, is to convert this overwhelming amount of information into an accessible and up-to-date understanding of how cells work. Help comes from a large increase in the number of review articles that attempt to make raw material easier to digest, although the vast majority of these reviews are still quite narrowly focused. Meanwhile, a rapidly growing collection of online resources tries to convince us that understanding is only a few mouse-clicks away. In some areas this change in the way we access knowledge has been highly successful— in discovering the latest information about our own medical problems, for example. But to understand something of the beauty and complexity of how living cells work, one needs more than just a wiki- this or wiki- that; it is enormously hard to identify the valuable and enduring gems from so much confusing landfill. Much more effective is a carefully wrought narrative that leads logically and progressively through the key ideas, components, and experiments in such a way that readers can build for themselves a memorable, conceptual framework for cell biology— a framework that will allow them to critically evaluate all of the new science and, more importantly, to understand it. That is what we have tried to do in Molecular Biology of the Cell. In preparing this new edition, we have inevitably had to make some difficult decisions. In order to incorporate exciting new discoveries, while at the same time keeping the book portable, much has had to be excised. We have added new sections, such as those on new RNA functions, advances in stem cell biology, new methods for studying proteins and genes and for imaging cells, advances in the genetics and treatment of cancer, and timing, growth control, and morphogenesis in development.

It has been a great pleasure to be involved in the writing of the sixth edition of Wheater’s Functional Histology. For the new edition, we have again kept the layout that has proved popular and successful in the past. Short bursts of introductory text are followed by a wealth of illustration, light micrographs, electron micrographs and line drawings, designed to elucidate the key points of histology without drowning the student in unnecessary detail. This text and atlas is designed to be accessible to the absolute beginner and, with that in mind, we have provided appendices at the back outlining the basics of microscopy and histological staining techniques, as well as a basic glossary. In addition to updating the text where required, we have extensively improved and added to the micrographs. Many of the students using this text and atlas will be involved in medicine and, accordingly, we have increased the clinical correlations in this edition, in the hope of making apparently arcane histological details easier to remember. We have also added a brief review section at the end of each chapter, useful for that last minute examination preparation! It was a great loss to the authorship team that James Lowe, Alan Stevens, John Heath and Phil Deakin decided, for various reasons, not to take part in the production of this new edition. We wish them good luck in their new endeavours and assure them that their input has been very much missed. The resulting gap has been filled by Geraldine O’Dowd and Phillip Woodford, who have laboured mightily to bring forth this book. Geraldine is the first author on the team who had used an earlier edition of this work during her own student days and she brings along the memory of her own perspective as an undergraduate, helping us to augment those features which help, as well as aiming to eliminate any sources of confusion or unnecessary complexity. We hope that students in all areas of science and medicine will find this revised and updated edition useful in their studies.

Previous editions of Mims’ Medical Microbiology have adopted the approach that the interaction between infectious disease and host response is best understood as a give-and-take conflict. The sixth edition continues this tradition, revising the title to Mims’ Medical Microbiology and Immunology to better reflect the subject. Continued recognition of Cedric Mims’ founding contribution to this work is seen not only in the title but also in the foreword to this sixth edition. Ivan Roitt, who played a major role in earlier editions, has relinquished his role as a main author and we gratefully acknowledge his contribution. Overall, this edition benefits from significant revision in multiple areas. The introductory chapters continue to present fundamental principles of infectious agents and host defences but now include the newly recognized importance of the human microbiota. Subsequent chapters present an updated overview of the general principles behind the infectious agent – immune response conflict, followed by a chapter-specific consideration of system-oriented conflict scenarios. Final chapters provide a revised consideration of issues affecting diagnosis and control of the conflict especially centring on newer molecular (especially DNA-sequence-based) approaches. Bibliographic references continue to include current Internet resources. Online access to interactive extras is provided via Elsevier’s STUDENT CONSULT website (www.studentconsult. com) including questions and answers, mostly in USMLE format, the Pathogen Parade (infectious agent) index, and a new Vaccine Parade index. Molecular approaches continue to inform and enlarge our understanding of pathogen–host interaction at a record pace. In this new edition of Mims’ Medical Microbiology and Immunology, we believe the student will find a logical and unified approach to the subject that is readable, exciting, and informative.