<p><i>Molecular Microbiology Laboratory, second edition, </i>is designed to teach essential principles and techniques of molecular biology and microbial ecology to upper-level undergraduates majoring in the life sciences and to develop students' scientific writing skills. A detailed lab preparation manual for instructors and teaching assistants accompanies the lab book and contains a general discussion of scientific writing and critical reading as well as detailed instructions for preparation and peer review of lab reports. Each experimental unit is accompanied by a number of additional writing exercises based upon primary journal articles.</p><ul><li>Exposes students to the new molecular-based techniques </li><li>Provides faculty with an authoritative, accessible resource for teaching protocols </li><li>The only manual to incorporate writing exercises, presentation skills and tools for reading primary literature into the curriculum </li><li>Based on a successful course for which the author won a teaching award </li></ul><b>New to this Edition:<br></b>- Presents a real-world study of bacterial populations in the environment in the final experiment <br>- Provides an overview of molecular biology in a new review chapter<br>- Demonstrates how to design an experiment and how to interpret the results <br>- Covers grant proposal writing and how panels review proposals <br>- Presents guidance on public speaking and preparing PowerPoint presentations <br>- Includes tutorials on three widely used software packages