So, you walk into a patch-clamp lab, there's a million different things on the rig and you're feeling very confused. The microscope is much more complex than the microscope you remember from high school, there's cabling literally everywhere, and everybody keeps mentioning how important it is not to disturb the "voodoo" shielding.

Where do you start? What do all those instruments do? Will I ever patch a cell on my own? This is the book for you.

The book does an excellent job explaining the main components on a patch-clamp rig (and advice for setting up your own if you're just starting up a lab) and gives detailed instructions on whole-cell patch clamp techniques. (I have not evaluated the single-channel techniques but they too seem quite well written.) Also, many simple "equivalent circuit" diagrams are given so that you can understand what you're measuring. You will patch successfully after reading this book!

My only criticism is that the book is a bit skimpy on what to do after you've got the cell patched. Only a few voltage-clamp techniques are explored and there is very little on experiments using dual recordings.

Otherwise, it's an excellent book. If you're new to patch-clamping, this is (literally) the only book for you.