No man is an island, some men have said with much conviction. Certainly, no cell biologist is, especially not one crafting a study guide involving a wide range of research problems and examples of student answers to some of those problems. I am grateful to the many persons who contributed to this work, especially my colleagues and students.
In many instances the problems were derived from journal articles whose authors might well be surprised at the metamorphosis of their data (if not actually dismayed by the liberties taken in their abstraction), or they were shamelessly and fancifully modified from material in introductory and advanced texts. I also developed a few of the problems from research presented in my favorite journal, Acta Artefacta (which has published some of my own research). For the most part, they appeared on examinations I have given at one time or another, and my reworking the problems has benefited greatly from the questions students raised when they first encountered them. While endlessly fascinating, the biology of cells often seems ambiguous and confusing, and I much appreciate both the patience and the clarity provided by George Saul, who taught BI250 with me for many years, and by the numerous students who took the course, wrestled with the problems and asked important, enlightening questions. They greatly helped me present the problems as unambiguously as possible. If I have succeeded, the credit is as much theirs as mine; wordiness, continuing ambiguity and any errors are mine alone.
Some problems are accompanied by answers, which are reproduced verbatim (and anonymously) from actual examinations, and I am especially grateful to those very generous students who have allowed their best, if not always successful, efforts to be so immortalized. Andy Gardner (Midd ’95) helped organize and edit some of these sections of the guide, much to their benefit.
Most recently, Kate Durda from Starksboro, VT scanned and redrew many of the diagrams and drawings and fashioned figures for the video problems, and Okomboli-Ong’ong’a (Midd, ’00.5) provided invaluable help with webpage design and the HTML; both also responded to my barks with much good humor. More remotely, Heather Joseph, while she was Managing Editor of Molecular Biology of the Cell, enthusiastically encouraged the creation of video problems, and the journal has relaxed the copyright restrictions on the use of video material it has published.
Finally, I much appreciate the support provided by Middlebury College, especially the generous enrichment fund that underwrites my professional activities as the Irene Heintz and John LaPorte Given Professor of Premedical Sciences.
To all, and especially to Cynthia in countless, undifferentiated ways: thank you!.