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Molecular Biology of the Cell* and Molecular Biology of the Cell: A Problems Approach+
*By Bruce Alberts, Alexander Johnson, Julian Lewis, Martin Raff, Keith Roberts and Peter Walter +By Tim Hunt and John Wilson
Reviewed by Bernhard Haubold, Fachhochschule Weihenstephan, Germany
The success of an academic disci- illustrations embedded in clear and natural sciences. pline has a lot to do with the attrac- carefully paced explanatory prose. For this reason, Tim Hunt (2001 tiveness of its founding ideas and dis- This feature makes the book useful Nobel laureate) and John Wilson have coveries. These in turn reach the next for readers with diverse levels of pro- written a companion book to MBoC: generation of practitioners through ficiency. For example, the panels sum- Molecular Biology of the Cell: A Problems textbooks. Three years after the com- marising the chemical constituents of Approach. The book consists of 1,389 pletion of the Human Genome cells are useful for students preparing problems supplementing chapters 1-8 Project, it is safe to say that molecular for university entry exams, whereas and 10-18 of MBoC. In addition, it cell biology is a success story. The the chapter on cancer contains a lot of contains detailed answers to half of fourth edition of its premiere text- material that will be news to all but the problems; the answers to the other book, Molecular Biology of the Cell the experts in the field. half are available to instructors from (MBoC), has been out for some time All of this richness is distributed the publisher without fuss. As Hunt now (it was published in 2002), but it over four parts containing 25 chapters and Wilson write, their problems can is still well worth drawing attention and adds up to a tome comprising be read as a “running commentary on to this marvellous teaching device. substantially more than 1,500 pages. If MBoC”. They range from simple What is your favourite discovery in you find books of this size too heavy true/false questions to concise pre- molecular biology since you last stud- to carry, let alone read, fear not, for sentations of the decisive data con- ied the subject at school or university? you can turn to the abridged version tained in classical research papers. An My list includes the realisation in the of MBoC, published as Essential Cell example of a typical true/false state- late 1990s that non-coding RNA plays Biology by the same team of authors ment is “Since introns are largely a central role in cell regulation, the as the parent volume. genetic ‘junk’, they do not have to be high-resolution 3D structure of ribo- There is a strange paradox about removed precisely.” As to research, somes in 2001, and the first draft of good textbooks, however. The easier the beautiful experiment by Meselson the sequence of the human genome in they make it for the reader to assimi- and Stahl published in 1958, which 2001. All three topics are dealt with in late complex new ideas, the more established the semi-conservative MBoC. In fact, genomics is treated in they distort the process by which the nature of DNA replication, serves as several places, starting on the cover, discoveries presented on their glossy the basis for several problems. In which shows a portion of the human pages were actually made. And it is addition, there are also a large num- genome sequence. this process of discovery, which is ber of problems designed to test the Apart from its comprehensiveness, usually nothing but anarchic, that is reader’s ability to perform the kind of MBoC is crammed with attractive at the heart of the attraction of the order of magnitude estimations
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Reviews
expected of working cell biologists. Wilson and Hunt’s companion vol- Details For example, how long are the DNA ume that makes MBoC truly special. Molecular Biology of the Cell molecules contained in the nucleus of Whether you are looking for interest- Publisher: Garland Science a single human cell? (Answer: ing class problems or just wish to Publication year: 2002 roughly 2 m.) Such computations are test your own understanding of cell ISBN: 9780815340720 never mathematically challenging, but biology, The Problems Approach is the Molecular Biology of the Cell: always biologically illuminating. closest you can get to experiencing A Problems Approach MBoC is a prime example of what a the excitement of research without Publisher: Garland Science good textbook in the biological sci- exchanging the safety of your arm- Publication year: 2002 ences should be: comprehensive, chair for the vagaries of the ISBN: 9780815335771 vivid and up-to-date. However, it is laboratory.
The Third Man of the Double Helix
Reviewed by Friedlinde Krotscheck, Internationale Gesamthochschule Heidelberg, Germany
In this autobiographical book, at a much slower pace by leading the cult to work selflessly for the common Maurice Wilkins presents the chrono- reader through the author’s family good. Wilkins’ message is to focus logical story of the discovery of DNA tree. It takes some patience not to skip first on the idealistic advancement of structure in 1953. As The Third Man of this first chapter completely. By chap- science and to put one’s own fame on the Double Helix, Wilkins is well ter two, Wilkins has begun to describe the backburner. Students need to placed to describe the complex scien- his educational background, painstak- learn to work co-operatively in tific background and people involved ingly building up the story to make groups, to gain knowledge from each in the breakthrough that earned him the reader understand why he other and to accept other opinions. and fellow scientists Francis Crick worked for some time on the devel- Creative criticism leads to discussions and James Watson the 1962 Nobel opment of the atomic bomb in and these might lead to solutions. Prize in Physiology or Medicine. Berkeley, California, in the early The Third Man of the Double Helix Since it is an autobiography, 1940s. Finally, he describes the would appeal to teachers and high- Wilkins puts himself in the centre by research team under Professor school students of biology. However, stressing his own point of view. Randall at King’s College, London, to get the full picture of this landmark Disturbed by concerns that Rosalind also called ‘Randall’s Circus’. From discovery, one should also read Jim Franklin was not given the credit she then on, The Third Man evolves and Watson’s book The Discovery of the deserved for her part in the discovery, keeps the reader in suspense. The Double Helix and Brenda Maddox’s he states in the preface that “this book book ends with the very simple con- Rosalind Franklin. is in some way my attempt to clusion that if Wilkins and Rosalind The historic relevance of all three respond to these questions, and to tell Franklin had been a more compatible books is especially important for my side of the story.” And that is pre- team, they would have found the younger teaching faculty who were cisely what Wilkins does, presenting solution to the DNA structure much not contemporary witnesses to this his viewpoint while including his earlier. period of scientific progress. own shortcomings and those of others This historic event is an excellent who worked for decades on the ques- example of the necessity of teamwork Details tion of how the cell copies genetic across science subjects, interdiscipli- Publisher: Oxford University Press information. nary exchanges and group co-opera- Publication year: 2005 The title suggests a rather exciting tion. With today’s competition for ISBN: 9780192806673 detective story, but the book starts off research funding, it is even more diffi-
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