the margins! Because I am a living system, perhaps, I find sueh waste abhorrent; our pine forests fall fast enough. Second, this being a stimulus rather than a source hook, a far more comprehensive bihliography, carfully annotated, is most desirable.
book reviews
Terence C. Owen University 01 South Florida Tampa, Florida 33620
Introductory Biochemistry Stuart J. Edelstein, Cornell University. Holden-Day, Ine., San Francisco, 1973. xiv + 353 pp. Figs. and tables. 24 X 19.5 cm. $13.95. Nature, it seems, takes an elfish delight in making mock of man's carefully contrived interdisciplinary borderlines and harriers. Nowhere is this more evident than in the study of life, where the wholesale demolition of the separation between biology and chemistry is in full swing. Teaching, a t this interface, consequently is in turmoil; how often must the concerned instructor of beginning hiochemistry or cell biology courses feel that his students cannot see the forest for a plethora of trees, and yet that they have better prospects of comprehending the whole jungle than his generation ever had. But how to take advantage of the opportunity? Edelstein tackles the problem squarely. He succeeds, not surprisingly, only in part; but, whatever else may be true, his hook is most stimulating to read. The title is unfortunate. "Introductary Biochemistry," in the sense af the many current texts bearing such titles, it certainly is not. "Essays," "Concepts," or even "Philosophies" in "Current Chemical Biology," or something of the sort, might he nearer the mark. In fact, this is not a textbook a t all. I doubt that it will give any student even the beginnings of a working competence in any of the areas touched upon. It oscillates between depths of technical naivete and heights of philosophical sophisticatmn in a startling manner. It devotes but one page of text (and one of structures) to glycolysis, one to the Krehs cycle, and one to oxidative phosphorylation. But these things are intrinsic to its purpose. It is no more intended ta be a comprehensive treatment of biochemistry and molecular biology than any current general chemistry text is meant to he
-Reviewed in this Issue
a primer in basic inorganic chemistry. Rather, like the latter, it selects appropriate items of fact to exemplify and about which to develop its concepts and philosophies. What, then, is its design? The all-pervasive theme is information in living systems, its preservation, transmission, modifications, ramifications, andconsequences. The first ten chapters set out this theme and its vertical nature very clearly. The next five are really something of an apologetic minimum of conventional intermediary metabolism and bioorganic chemistry and i t is not long before the author returns to his heart's delight with "Control of Protein Synthesis" and "Topics in Differentiation" culminating with a philosophical discussion of "Implications of Contemporary Biochemistry." This latter, a mere ten pages, alone provides material sufficient t o last a debate-minded class for a whole term a t least. Who will the book serve? The author states that it developed from material prepared for teaching the one-semester hiochemistry course required of all Cornell biology majors. How well it would serve such a purpose I am not, as a chemist, too well qualified t o judge, though I expect that it would do very well. For its parallel, a one-quarter course for chemistry seniors, I have no doubt that it would do very well indeed and I would thoroughly enjoy designing and teaching a course based on it. The end result would be quite different, make no mistake, from that of s conventional approach, but a good look a t "the other side of the fence" would be invaluable to the terminal student and would provide stimulus and breadth of perspeetive to one planning further study. Two criticisms: First, as is currently fashionable, the book confines running text to the spinal three-fifth's of each page and reserves the marginal two-fifth's for structures, diagrams, etc.; but then it proceeds to intercalate structures into the text and waste by far the greater part of
Biwchemislry: A Comprehensive Review
N. V. Bhogauon, University of Hawaii, Honolulu, Hawaii. J . B. Lippincott Company, New York, 1974. xii + 964 pp. Figs. and tables. 17.4 X 24 cm. $14. Although this text is subtitled a comprehensive review, it does not meet one's expectations of a comprehensive review. While offering lengthy discussions on a wide variety of medically oriented topics, striving to relate biochemistry to the practice of medicine, this text's treatment of the basic principles of' biochemistry is totally inadequate. The author's purpose is "to create an interest and a sustained enthusiasm towards the study of biaehemistry for those students pursuing medical and other health-related studies." It will fail unless the student approaches the text with a n understanding of the tundamentals of biochemistry. The chapten on amino acids, proteins, and enzymes are notable for their omissions. The amino acids are not gmuped according to the polarity of their side chains, nor in any other manner. No mention is made of the p K values of the various charged side chains. Only two sen^ tences are devoted to the technique of single crystal X-ray diffraction and only the structure of lysozyme is mentioned. No three-dimensional structure is ever shown. With this lack of preparation, it would be difficult to appreciate the mechanism of action of lysozyme, or of any other enzyme. The reader is spared this difficulty though, since no mechanisms are given. How are proteins purified? Six methods are named with no further comment. The discoveries of molecular biology are treated in a similar fashion. The elegance of the classic experiments, along with the excitement of discovery, is missing. The reader is given no idea of how genes were mapped, of how semi-conservative replication was demonstrated, or of how the genetic code was established. No reference is made to the design of even a single experiment What remains of basic biochemistry is a listing of facts. Often terms are introduced without being adequately defined and the reader is confronted more than once with errors which are regrettable, sueh as the statement that proteins contain left-handed rr-helices, complete with hydrogen bonds in the most unexpected places. Approximately half of the text is devoted to medically oriented topics. The ehapters on metabolism emphasize human hiochemistry and contain many interesting comments on diagnosis and treatment. (Continued on pogeA264)
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Stuart J Edelstein, Introductory Biochemistry
. . A261
N. V. Bhagauan, Biochemistry: A Comprehensive Review
. . A261
William L. Masterton and Emil J. Slowinski, Elementary Mathematical Preparation for General Chemistry
A264
Clifford E. Swortr and Theodore D. Goldfarb. A Search far Order in the Physical Universe
. . . A264
Charles J Pouchrrt and John R. Campbell, The Aldrich Library of NMR Spectra. Volume IV
. . . A266
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Volume 52, Number 4, Awil 1975 1 A261
