Book excerpt: An authoritative, extensively illustrated clinician's textbook, The Biology of the Skin is written expressly for practitioners and residents in dermatology, plastic surgery, and otolaryngology. Essentially an expansion of the editors' and contributing authors' popular "Structure and Function" course given annually at the meetings of the American Academy of Dermatology, the book teaches skin biology in the context of practical clinical settings. This book covers the basic biology of the skin, how the skin functions, effects of the environment, the molecules that direct cutaneous function, genetic influences, and methods in cutaneous research. The Biology of the Skin provides a selective review of all biologic processes involving the skin and will foster an appreciation of how the skin works based on our knowledge of the basic science of skin structure and function in the 21st century.