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Isotopic gas analysis for biochemists
518
BOOK REVIEWS
significant biological role has been revealed for the pteridines. While first thought of principally as insect pigments, these compounds are now recognized as important regulators of cell division, even in the highest forms of life. This progress in pteridine chemistry is reviewed by A. Albert. WALTER
J.
SCHUBERT,
New
York,
New
York
Isotopic Gas Analysis for Biochemists. By R. F. GLAECOCK, Head of the Isotope Section, the National Institute for Research in Dairying, University of Reading, England. Academic Press Inc., New York, N. Y., 1954. viii + 247 pp. Price $5.80. Any modern work which, like this new book, includes detailed accounts of firsthand experiences in the determination of widely used isotopes, merits a warm welcome. Books and review articles giving the results obtained with the isotopic tracer technique are numerous, but there are few laboratory manuals which describe the latest developments in technique and the difficulties which may be encountered. The isotopes of carbon and hydrogen will continue to be the isotopic tracers most widely employed by biochemists, and it is fairly certain that multiple isotopic labeling for metabolic and other biological investigations will become increasingly more popular. Thus the detailed descriptions which this book gives of techniques for the combustion of samples containing deuterium, tritium, 03, and Cl*, and the appropriate isotopic assays (for example, the determination of tritium, Ci4, and Cl* in a single lo-mg. sample) will prove valuable in many laboratories. Now that relatively cheap, high specific activity tritium is available, the use of this isotope in biological investigations will undoubtedly expand very rapidly, and many biochemists should find the chapters on tritium determinations and the preparation of some typical tritium-labeled compounds particularly useful. Dr. Glascock has made valuable contributions to the development of the gasphase measurement of isotopes of carbon and hydrogen, and this book gives a clear account of “gas counting” and the use of the permanent uaeuum-tine technique for the preparation of the necessary gas samples. Methods involving the use of scintillation counters and windowless counters for the assay of Cl4 and HS are rapidly becoming more satisfactory and more versatile, and usually they are considerably simpler than the ordinary or “conventional” gas-counting methods. It is unlikely, however, that these last-named methods will be entirely superseded, and in the fully equipped isotope laboratory these different techniques will be regarded as complementary. As is inevitable with a book which attempts to give full accounts of all the principal relevant methods available, the reader is confronted with such a wide choice that he will often find it difficult to select the most suitable method for his particular purpose. However, in bringing together descriptions of all these different techniques, often with comments on their limitations and special virtues, and for giving a full account of his own methods and experiences, Dr. Glascock has done an exceIIent service to isotope workers. 8. WORMALL, London, England
BOOK REVIEWS
significant biological role has been revealed for the pteridines. While first thought of principally as insect pigments, these compounds are now recognized as important regulators of cell division, even in the highest forms of life. This progress in pteridine chemistry is reviewed by A. Albert. WALTER
J.
SCHUBERT,
New
York,
New
York
Isotopic Gas Analysis for Biochemists. By R. F. GLAECOCK, Head of the Isotope Section, the National Institute for Research in Dairying, University of Reading, England. Academic Press Inc., New York, N. Y., 1954. viii + 247 pp. Price $5.80. Any modern work which, like this new book, includes detailed accounts of firsthand experiences in the determination of widely used isotopes, merits a warm welcome. Books and review articles giving the results obtained with the isotopic tracer technique are numerous, but there are few laboratory manuals which describe the latest developments in technique and the difficulties which may be encountered. The isotopes of carbon and hydrogen will continue to be the isotopic tracers most widely employed by biochemists, and it is fairly certain that multiple isotopic labeling for metabolic and other biological investigations will become increasingly more popular. Thus the detailed descriptions which this book gives of techniques for the combustion of samples containing deuterium, tritium, 03, and Cl*, and the appropriate isotopic assays (for example, the determination of tritium, Ci4, and Cl* in a single lo-mg. sample) will prove valuable in many laboratories. Now that relatively cheap, high specific activity tritium is available, the use of this isotope in biological investigations will undoubtedly expand very rapidly, and many biochemists should find the chapters on tritium determinations and the preparation of some typical tritium-labeled compounds particularly useful. Dr. Glascock has made valuable contributions to the development of the gasphase measurement of isotopes of carbon and hydrogen, and this book gives a clear account of “gas counting” and the use of the permanent uaeuum-tine technique for the preparation of the necessary gas samples. Methods involving the use of scintillation counters and windowless counters for the assay of Cl4 and HS are rapidly becoming more satisfactory and more versatile, and usually they are considerably simpler than the ordinary or “conventional” gas-counting methods. It is unlikely, however, that these last-named methods will be entirely superseded, and in the fully equipped isotope laboratory these different techniques will be regarded as complementary. As is inevitable with a book which attempts to give full accounts of all the principal relevant methods available, the reader is confronted with such a wide choice that he will often find it difficult to select the most suitable method for his particular purpose. However, in bringing together descriptions of all these different techniques, often with comments on their limitations and special virtues, and for giving a full account of his own methods and experiences, Dr. Glascock has done an exceIIent service to isotope workers. 8. WORMALL, London, England