centrate on the "hardware," this view ferentiation (physiology, morphogenesis, and water across cell membranes and of the systems approach is quite en- molecular biology) and presents new for the photosynthetic conversion of lightening. and fresh insights concerning the at- radiant energy to chemical energy. Bill D. Davis titudes of each. He warns against neo- The book presupposes a basic back- Rutgers University classical, incomplete approaches to ground in plant biology and some New Brunswick, N.J. studies in biology. knowledge of elementary calculus, both In the third essay Wardlaw attempts of which should be in the armamentar- to reconcile divergent, conflicting views ium of the advanced undergraduate LIGHT AND LIVING MATTER, VOL. 1: THE that have been formulated from con- students and beginning graduate stu- PHYSICAL PART, by Roderick K. Clay- clusions drawn. Certain criteria were dents to whom the book is directed. ton. 1970. McGraw-Hill Book Co., defined and applied to investigations on The first half of the book concerns New York. 148 p. $4.50. apices of plants and reciprocal relation- itself with water relations and ion ships with the developing shoot. Such transport. The author is consistent with This is an introduction to the nature reconciliations are to get at the truths most current textbooks in using the of light and its interaction with matter about morphogenesis. term "water potential" instead of the and a review of the role of light in bi- The fourth essay presents several of older ones, "diffusion pressure deficit" ology. The book is meant to be collateral the enigmas in plant development: and "suction pressure." But although reading in biology, chemistry, and floral organogenesis, chemical morpho- most physiologists agree as to the com- physics courses, and it can be used in genesis, and phyletic gaps, for example. ponents of the water potential being osmotic these respects. Specifically, in biology Wardlaw suggests some rights and some pressure, hydrostatic pressure, and courses the book would be effective wrongs of the concepts of performation matric potential, it should be noted

that Downloaded from http://online.ucpress.edu/abt/article-pdf/33/6/367/28581/4443554.pdf by guest on 02 October 2021 collateral reading for majors, but I do and epigenesis. If we are to maintain they haven't yet agreed on the symbolic notation to be not recommend it for nonmajors. The our self-respect as scholars we must used for these quantities. To illustrate the book assumes, here and there, a work- eliminate some of these gaps in knowl- detailed quantitative treatment ing knowledge of first-year college edge or outlook. We of ion move- need to think more ment, as an calculus; however, the descriptive ma- deeply and in new example, the familiar Nernst ways before de- equation is presented but terial can be understood without this claring an enigma. the Goldman and Ussing-Teorell equations, knowledge. The last essay considers the theme usually The second chapter, "The Physics of found only in monographs of this sub- of organization, viewing it through the ject, are Radiation and Matter," would be the also used. Irreversible thermo- controlling principle (entelechy) and dynamics most helpful to a biology major taking are briefly introduced and the creation of wholes (holism). The applied to solute his first college course in biology. The movement. poetic euphoria with which these con- In the second half of the chapter includes a presentation of the book the cepts invest us is admirable but gives concepts and equations of quantum theory, molecular states and photochem- a scientist very few tangibles in which istry are developed and applied to orbitals, and the transfer-of-excitation to sink his "practical teeth." The author green-plant photosynthesis. In the final theory. feels that analysis of the holistic parts chapter, Gibbs free energy and This book would also be valuable to the can yield testable hypotheses. Initiation equations concerning its interconver- a instructor who does not have biology of disorganization patterns (anomalies), sion are taken up, and a brief a in the physical treat- strong background whether by radiation or growth-sub- ment of chloroplast and mitochondrial sciences. Such an instructor probably stance treatments, has raised new ques- bioenergetics is included. could cope with the text and would tions, not solved old problems. Chemical As Nobel states in his preface, the gain a better understanding of some of morphogenesis has not created new stress is on the underlying theoretic the physical principles underlying bi- species. But can there be plant neo- bases: relatively few experimental ob- ologic phenomena. formations equivalent to Huxley's "test servations or applications of the con- I recommend that the book be used tube babies"? Someday, perhaps. cepts are made. The student can be as collateral reading in a course for bi- Wardlaw's essays collectively form a stimulated to test his understanding of ology majors, and that biology instruc- semipoetic, beautifully done book that the concepts by working with the prob- tors add the book to their library. should capture the interest of the novice lems presented at the end of each chap- Frank M. O'Kelley in the field of plant morphogenesis and ter. Four useful appendices (and the Rio Hondo College still present the mature thinker with answers to the problems) and an ad- WVhittier,Calif. many unresolved problems, both prac- equate index conclude the book. The tical and philosophic. subject matter does not lend itself to Gerald A. Myers lavish illustration, but those present Botany South Dakota State University and the typography are of the high Brookings quality that one has come to expect CELLULAR DIFFERENTIATION IN PLANTS, AND from this publisher.

OTHER ESSAYS, by C. W. Wardlaw. 1970. PLANT CELL PHYSIOLOGY: A PHYSICO- Raymond W. Holton Manchester University Press, Man- CHEMICAL APPROACH, by Park S. Nobel. University of Tennessee chester, England. 160 p. $6.50. 1970. W. H. Freeman & Co., San Knoxville Francisco. 275 p. $7.75. Wardlaw, the botanist who has con- tributed so much to the field of plant A long dearth of new general text- Education morphogenesis, "bio-essays" the field. books in plant physiology, coupled with In the introductory essay he examines much research activity in the field, has ACADEMIC GAMESMANSHIP, by Pierre van the words of the major exponents of stimulated the publication of several den Berghe. 1970. Abelard-Schuman, morphogenesis historically and con- introductory and advanced textbooks in Ltd., London. 116 p. $4.95. (hard- siders what to do with their views and recent years. Nobel's book treats topics back). inferences in the light of contemporary that cannot be covered in detail in an knowledge. He then zeroes in on elementary textbook, and yet its con- Pierre van den Berghe, distinguished Turing's unitary reaction system as a tent is basic to anything more than a language scholar and sociologist spe- useful holistic pattern to follow in mor- descriptive discussion of many processes cializing in ethnic relationships, con- phogenetic research. in plant cells. In particular, it is con- tinues to distinguish himself in a vol- In the second essay he develops var- cerned with the physicochemical ex- ume on the sociology of the academic ious approaches in viewing cellular dif- planations for the movements of ions community. It is clearly autobiographic,

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