Chemical Education Today edited by
Book & Media Reviews
Jeffrey Kovac University of Tennessee Knoxville, TN 37996-1600
Glowing Genes: A Revolution in Biotechnology by Marc Zimmer Prometheus Books: Amherst, NY, 2005. 196 pp. ISBN 1591022533 (cloth). $28 reviewed by Vicky Minderhout
This book, written by an active researcher in the field, is designed to introduce savvy popular science readers and scientists to the history and applications of bioluminescence. Although I am a biochemist familiar with bioluminescence and some of its applications, this book introduced me to many more. In fact I was surprised at the range of bioluminescence applications that have been employed. Bioluminescence has been used to track the biological development of organs, to study the spread of cancer or a virus in the body, and to signal that a plant requires water. Some more unusual applications include tracking submarines via satellite by detecting the luminescent glow of disturbed dinoflagellates that emit light in response to movement of the submarine and locating land mines through transgenic bacteria that digest the TNT and glow as a result. The examples included in the book are extensive and fascinating and are supported with 16 color plates. The book utilizes an anecdotal style to relate stories taken from personal communication, historical records, and the scientific literature to trace bioluminescence from early observations and uses to the scientific advances and current applications. The predominant examples are the bioluminescence associated with fireflies and jellyfish. I particularly liked the story about the glow-in-the-dark Roman banquets at which participants ate clams that produce phosphorescent green slime—resulting in glowing green lips. The current stories about modern science were just as interesting and provided a window for the lay audience to see how science is done. The final chapter reminds us that the discoveries of bioluminescence cited in the book started out as basic research with no notion or ex-
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pectation of the extensive applications currently available. As such it represents a classic tale in how basic research is unpredictable in its final utility. Historical material on bioluminescence is covered in the first two chapters. The third chapter briefly reviews the scientific history and applications of the protein luciferase from fireflies. The remainder of the book (last 11 chapters) focuses on the scientific history and applications of green fluorescent protein, GFP, from jellyfish Aequorea Victoria. It begins with the work of Osamu Shimomura and Frank Johnson from Princeton on the jellyfish Aequorea aequorea and another bioluminescent protein, aequorin. To engage the reader, the author uses amusing stories about the collection of thousands of jellyfish from the cold waters of the Pacific Northwest. To understand and appreciate the power of GFP applications, one needs to have a basic understanding of how the molecular machinery of the cell is used to make proteins. Zimmer provides analogies to explain protein expression and show how it is possible to make proteins with GFP attached to them. Armed with that understanding, the reader should find all of the applications accessible. The book is entertaining and at the same time informative. That said, it suffers from poor editing, which is a shame. There were times when I simply had to stop reading because the style became too annoying; I sometimes would have to reread the topic sentence of a paragraph to see if I missed something because the paragraph seemed to veer off in an unanticipated direction. Despite the annoyances in the writing, I did learn an abundance of new information from this fascinating book. The book would be useful for a wide range of individuals. The revolution in biotechnology described through the book’s examples will appeal to popular science fans, science students, and scientists alike. The science described is engaging and approachable and references are included for each chapter. I would recommend this book for library acquisition. Vicky Minderhout is in the Department of Chemistry, Seattle University, Seattle, WA 98122;
[email protected] Vol. 83 No. 2 February 2006
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Journal of Chemical Education
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