[3dem] RE: Microscopy: Williams and Carter follow up

[Sarah Schooling]

Dear Phillip, Pawel, 



many thanks for the interesting topic and viewpoints. 



Out of curiosity, which books/papers on EM image formation and EM would you recommend to the novice and more advanced learner? I am asking out of personal interest as I have recently begun forays into single particle analysis and am seeking to further my understanding and knowledge in these areas. 



Any recommendations from others for texts, papers, online resources etc are also greatly appreciated! 


With thanks, best wishes, 


With thanks, best wishes, 

 Sarah 


----- Original Message -----


From: "Pawel A Penczek" <Pawel.A.Penczek at uth.tmc.edu> 
To: "Philip Köck" <Philip.Koeck at ki.se>, 3dem at ncmir.ucsd.edu 
Sent: Thursday, 7 June, 2012 9:56:12 AM 
Subject: [3dem] RE: Microscopy: Williams and Carter follow up 

Dear Phillip. 

I purchased WC book looking for a concise introduction to EM image formation. 
My decision was based on scanning various options and looking at chapter 
titles.  When I got the book I realized it was not what I was looking for. 
It is filled with various practical advices possibly thrilling for somebody 
trying to learn the practice of EM from a book.  However, the theoretical 
aspects, as you aptly pointed out, are confused, to put it mildly, and at 
least for my purposes useless. 

The solution is not to "ban a book", but simply do not quote it in your publications. 
I for one have no intentions to refer to it.  Books/papers that are not quoted will vanish 
soon enough. 

Regards, 
Pawel A. Penczek, Ph.D. 
Professor 
Department of Biochemistry and Molecular Biology 
The University of Texas - Houston Medical School 
MSB 6.220 
6431 Fannin 
Houston, TX 77030 
USA 

phone: 713-500-5416 
fax: 713-500-6297 
pawel.a.penczek at uth.tmc.edu 
http://www.uth.tmc.edu/bmb/faculty/pawel-penczek.html 
________________________________________ 
From: 3dem-bounces at ncmir.ucsd.edu [3dem-bounces at ncmir.ucsd.edu] On Behalf Of Philip Köck [Philip.Koeck at ki.se] 
Sent: Thursday, June 07, 2012 8:01 AM 
To: 3dem at ncmir.ucsd.edu; microscopy at microscopy.com 
Subject: [3dem] Microscopy: Williams and Carter follow up 

Hi again, 

I’m a bit surprised by the lack of response to my mail. 
I would have expected someone to stand up and defend W+C since it’s 
such a highly recommended book. 

To make things clear: I’m not saying everything is wrong in the book. 
I simply cannot judge that. 
What I am saying is that some of the parts I’ve read carefully and that lie within 
the field I teach don’t seem to make sense. 
Since I cannot judge the rest of the book I have to make my decisions 
based on what I know. Should I assume that the rest of the book is 
also full of logical problems or should I hope that I just happened to stumble 
upon the weakest parts of the book. 

For me this question has implications in two areas of academic life. 
One is teaching: Can I tell my students that W+C is a trustworthy book 
apart from a few derivations or should I tell them to stay away from it? 

The second is research: Text books like W+C are actually quoted in 
scientific papers. What are such references worth? Maybe one 
should ban quoting certain text books? 

Any comments? 

Philip 
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