Martinus Willem Beijerinck - His life and his work

Martinus Willem Beijerinck - His life and his work

407 T I B S - September 1984 his demonstration that tobacco mosaic disease is caused by a filterable, infectious living agent (this work was done ind...

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T I B S - September 1984 his demonstration that tobacco mosaic disease is caused by a filterable, infectious living agent (this work was done independently from Ivanovski, and with deeper insight into its significance). The biography shows that these important studies only represent a part of a formidable body of work. Despite the wealth of detail presented and not for lack of effort on the part of the authors, Beijerinck remains somewhat of an enigma. He was a man of wide learning and a keen observer; yet not every scientist with those qualities is

invited by an industrialist to set up a brand-new laboratory in an area of research in which he has little experience and is then given a virtually free hand in his choice of research subjects. Although a melancholic, solitary man, he established close friendships with a small number of his intellectual equals (for example van't Hoff and de Vries). He was unreasonably demanding and at times downright unpleasant towards his students and assistants, but they revered him. The stamp which he put on the Delft School as Professor of Micro-

Biochemistpj in (slightly biased) perspective Papers in Biochemistry

the editors and my own are identical. There are, however, some glaring gaps.

edited by Jon Herriott, Gary Jacobson, Julius Marmur and William Parson, I feel the book should contain one or two papers dealing with the recent work Addison Wesley, 1984. £17.05 (xxiii + of DeLuca or Kodicek giving completely 643 pages) 1SBN 0 201 05542 2 Biochemistry has increased in scope enormously over the last twenty years or so, and activities in this field are closely interwoven with areas such as clinical medicine, microbiology (including virology), genetics, zoology, botany, and various other fields of modem science. Any scientist doing research in this field or involved in teaching can only cover in depth a limited number of topics, and thus any selection of important papers will unavoidably carry an element of personal bias. This reviewer is conscious that his own selection is. likely to suffer from this defect as much as the selection made by the four scienfists responsible for the book under review. The papers cover a very wide field of biochemistry, ranging from protein structure to discussion of the function of enzymes, various fields of metabolism, photosynthesis, nucleic acids, and gene expression. Many or most of the papers would also have appeared in a selection I might have made myself. I was pleased to see that the important paper by Mitchell and Moyle is included. I remember that when this paper appeared, almost all the experts in this particular area were critical, and were reluctant to accept this important new approach. It was some years before Mitchell's concept became part of orthodox undergraduate teaching. I also approve of including Christian Anfmsen's important paper in Science, which forms the opening chapter of this book. It would be somewhat wearisome to extend the list and give further examples of a similar type where the selection of

new ideas of the action of vitamin D. In the last twenty years there have been an enormous number of papers dealing with the structure and function of glycoproteins but this whole field has been left out. I would have included the paper by David Phillips on the mechanism and action of lysozyme. The vast expansion in our knowledge of the structure and function of collagen and other components of connective tissue would merit inclusion of one or two papers in that field. I would have included the classical paper of Sanger on the structure of insulin, or one or two papers on immunoglobulius by Edelman or Porter, or the work on pro-insulin by

biology could easily have inhibited the most able successor; but rather than go into a period of comparative decline, as often happens after the retirement of a 'giant', the School flourished as never before under Kluyver. There are some interesting leads here for further historical study and the biography will provide a valuable source of reference. H A R M K E KAMMINGA

Department of Crystallography, Birkbeck College, University of London, Malet Street, London WCIE 7HX, UK.

Steiner. There is no mention of our increased knowledge of the biogenesis of porphyrins or chlorophyll, the elucidation of the structure of vitamin B12, or the advances which have been made in our understanding of inborn errors of metabolism. The editors seem to have concentrated almost entirely on papers which have appeared in the Journal of Biological Chemistry or Biochemistry, or one or two other journals used mainly by North American authors. This bias, I think, is difficult to excuse. But, in spite of what might be considered some shortcomings, this is an interesting and stimulating selection which will be used in advanced teaching and which will give the student some historical perspective and help him to understand how modem biochemistry has evolved. ALBERT NEUBERGER

The Lister Institute of Preventative Medicine, Charing Cross Hospital Medical School, St. Dunstan's Road, London W6 8RP, UK.

Better communication of science to the public Presenting Science to the Public

by Barbara Gastel, ISI Press, 1983. (xi + 146 pages) ISBN 0 894 95082 2 In reviewing the three volumes, comprising 1 322 pages, of Nuclear Power Technology, Sir Alan Cottreil pointed out that the work was a perfect example of scientific exposition, presenting the facts and letting them speak for themselves 'uncoloured by rhetoric, unstrained by advocasy, unheated by passion, unbiased by prejudice'. Unfortunately, the reader of Presenting Science to the Public will search in vain for any definition of this minority culture to which true scientists belong. 'The great world', wrote Cottrell, 'which fashions public opinion - the world of hyperbole and shock-horror, of the self-inflated politician, bombastic trades union

leader, committed journalist, trendy teleperson - resonates to a different sound.' 'A little learning is a dangerous thing', wrote Alexander Pope, 'Drink deep, or taste not the Pierian spring: There shallow draughts intoxicate the brain. And drinking largely sobers us again.' It may not be to everybody's taste to be told by Dr Gastel to learn from the American journalists and 'science writers' whom she quotes how to flavour any science writings we undertake with 'human interest' and 'news value', but perhaps if our readers read enough news items and magazine articles, if our viewers watch enough of our television programmes and our listeners listen to enough of our radio interviews (about Three Mile Island and acid rain, about lead in the atmosphere, about The Food