922 J. Chem. Inf. Comput. Sci., Vol. 36, No. 4, 1996
BOOK REVIEWS
BOOK REVIEWS Bioinformatics: From Nucleic Acids and Proteins to Cell Metabolism. Edited by Dietmar Schomburg, Uta Lessel. GBF Monographs; Vol. 18. VCH: Weinheim, Germany. 195 pp. ISBN 3-527-30072-4. DM148. The 14 articles in this volume are a selection of papers given at a conference in Bioinformatics/Computer Application in the Biosciences held in October 1995 in Braunschweig at the German National Laboratory for Biotechnology. Readers are advised of the latest advances in this growing field which uses the expertise of biologists, chemists, and computer scientists. The four major research fronts in bioinformatics which are surveyed here include biological databases, DNA and RNA, protein sequences and structures, and cell metabolism. Specific topics discussed include an integrated services approach to biological sequence databases, statistical analysis of DNA sequences, algorithms for the protein docking problem, and simulation and animation of intracellular diffusion. I highly recommend it for research level collections.
Bruce Slutsky New Jersey Institute of Technology CI960423D S0095-2338(96)00423-4
The Internet: A Guide for Chemists. Edited by Stephen M. Bachrach. American Chemical Society: Washington, DC. 1996. 344 pp. 0-8412-3223-7. Despite the inevitability that half of this book will be out of date in six months, it is well worth reading. There are many general books on the Internet available, but this is the first with an added focus on the needs of chemists. I was impressed by the care that was taken with the general topics on the “History of the Internet” and the different Internet features such as “Electronic Mail,” “Gopher,” and “The World Wide Web”. Each is clearly written, and an obvious effort was made to ensure that both nontechnically and technically inclined readers can find useful knowledge. On the whole, I saw few errors in the text but am compelled to point out a fairly serious typographical situation in the chapter on “Designing an Internet-Accessible Database”. There are several UNIX programs scattered throughout the chapter, and, in many of these, the introductory comment character “#” has gotten offset in the lines of code. Anyone attempting to duplicate the programs would have difficulties, and it is also somewhat disrupting to read. The book is divided into two sections. Besides the section on “Basic Information” addressed above, there is also a section “Specifically for Chemists”. The chapters here are focused on particular uses of the Internet to enhance communication between chemists or to provide or collate chemical information on the Internet. The flavor of this section is one of entrepreneurial encouragement as opposed to the instructional introduction found in the first section.
A few of the chapters list URLs where more recent information can be located. This is an unique attempt to keep up with a subject that changes overnight.
Kimberly J. Parker Sterling Chemistry Library, Yale UniVersity CI9604246 S0095-2338(96)00424-6
The Dynamic Environment. By Leonard J. Soltzberg. University Science Books: Sausalito, CA. 1996. 209 pp. $58.00. ISBN 0-935702-38-5. Includes: Consider a Spherical Cow. A Course in Environmental Problem Solving. By John Harte. University Science Books: Sausalito, CA. 1988. 283 pp. ISBN 0-935702-58-X. These two books are sold as a set. The Dynamic EnVironment was written as a companion volume to Consider a Spherical Cow. Spherical Cow is an excellent guide to the very important art of quickly finding approximate answers to problems such as “what was the pH of rainfall before the Industrial Revolution?” or “how much carbon dioxide was produced in 1980 from the combustion of fossil fuels?”. This book illustrates step-by-step how to solve dozens of problems of this type. In addition, it has an excellent appendix which contains much useful data to aid in the processsthings such as the amount of carbon in rock, in fossil fuels, in living and dead organic matter, and in carbon dioxide. The Dynamic EnVironment converts most of the problems of Spherical Cow into computer-based numerical models, using a demo version of the Stella II numerical simulation program. This enables the user to view changes in the modeled system as a function of time. What happens to the pollutant concentration of the lake over a period of 5 years? 100 years? In addition, starting assumptions can be changed to see the effect of the assumptions on the results. Suppose the estimate of birth rates is off by a factor of 2show much does this affect the result? The interactive nature of the computer models lets the user see and test the models generated. It is a shame that both of these books have the “environmental” tag in their titles, since this may potentially limit their readership. This material should be read and understood by all scientists. The ability to do a quick, back-of-the-envelope calculation with approximate numbers can often alert us when our very detailed solutions are grossly in error. Certainly this material could add some life and interest to high school or college chemistry courses.
D. Eric Walters Finch UniVersity of Health Sciences/ The Chicago Medical School CI960425Y S0095-2338(96)00425-8
