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ful decrepitude' of the Austrian Empire, the Berlin of the early thirties the Berlin, that is, not only of the long knives but also of Brecht and Weill--the grimness of America. These accounts, often witty, often moving,reveal what it means to be human in what Chargaff calls 'our inhuman century'. But above all, this is an account of the life of a mind, a mind that, following in the footsteps of Heraclitus, has always sought to understand the underlying coherence of things. Hence Chargaff's dialectical view of the life process, and his insistence that scientists should aim to understand rather than explain (explain away7) nature. Hence his frustration with the everincreasing fragmentation of science and with those advocates of scientific progress who hold that more science means better science ('Are six laws of thermodynamics better than threeT'). Hence also his characterization of molecular biology as empty at the core - after all, if DNA is to explain everything it explains nothing. Chargaff's love of life and nature has made him appalled at what has become of science, a science that can no longer plead

innocence after the holocausts of Europe and Hiroshima, a science that has become dogmatic, complacent and dangerous. His love of words, instilled at an early age by the writings of Karl Kraus, Goethe, Kierkegaard and Pascal and which stimulated him to read in 15 languages, has made him equally horrified at the dehumanization of language ('the mirror of the soul') that he has witnessed. Yet this is not a gloomy book. Chargaff's wit, his sense of the absurd and his belief (despite everything) in the dignity of man temper his apocalyptic visions. He offers no easy solutions but having faced the reality of our century, he has seen the problems more deafly than most. Heraclitus said 'Evil witnesses are the eyes and ears for men, if they have souls that do not understand their language'. Chargaff's soul, if he will excuse the expression, does understand their language and for this reason alone his book should be read and

Hardy perennial

singled out for special mention are hypothalamic regulatory hormones (Schally et al.), nerve growth factor (Bradshaw), empirical predictions of protein structure (Chou and Fasman), erythroleukemic differentiation (Marks and Rifkind), animal cell cycle (Pardee et al.), the role of adenosine and 2-deoxyadenosine in mammalian cells (Fox and Kelley), insect plasma proteins (Wyatt and Pan), and fluorescent energy transfer as a spectroscopic ruler (Stryer). Of the five articles devoted to biomembrane research, I liked the one by H. C. Andersen who summarizes the various probes that have been used to study membrane structure. He concludes that results from such studies have led to little unambiguous knowledge about membranes because the quantities measured in most cases are only indirectly related to structure; a timely warning for anyone entering the field. No volume like this would be complete today without something pertaining to 'genetic engineering', and this is provided by C. M. Radding who discusses genetic recombination, strand transfer and mismatch repair. Finally, I note from R. Wu's contribution that the speed of DNA sequence analysis has increased ten-fold over the last decade and now a sequence of 200 nueleotides can be determined in a month. Such is progress.

Annual Review of Biochemistry, Vol. 47

edited by Esmond E. Snell, Paul D. Boyer, Alton Meister and Charles C. Richardson, Annual Reviews Inc., Palo Alto, California, 1978. $17.00 U.S.A. ($17.50 elsewhere) (ix q- 1315 pages) 0 8243 0847 6 These days, publication of a volume that can justifiably be called Annual Review of Biochemistry, is a formidable task. Biochemistry now forms part of so many disciplines that to review progress in all advancing fields each year is evidently not feasible. However, the experienced Editorial Committee points out that it hopes to provide 'reasonable coverage of most areas of biochemistry over a period of years', and who would argue that this is the best that we can expect. In spite of this, the present volume, comprising 33 topics treated by 62 authors is sure to provide something of value to everyone in biochemistry. As usual, the volume starts off with a historical/biographical article. This time H. A. Barker traces his career in studying bacterial metabolic pathways, particularly those of the anaerobes. The reviews of contemporary biochemistry which follow amply der~onstrate the diversity of the subject. Topics that have not been treated separately before, and thus may be

read.

HARMKE KAMMLNGA

Harmke Kamminga is at the Department o f History and Philosophy o f Science, Chelsea College, University o f London.

A. J. COLBORNE

A. J. Colborne is a freelance science writer.

Membrane dynamics Cell Surface Reviews, Volume 3: Dynamic Aspects of Cell Surface Organization

edited by G. Poste and G. L. Nicholson, Elsevier[North-Holland Biomedical Press, Amsterdam, New York and Oxford, 1977. Dr. 220.00 (xxiv + 750 pages) ISBN 0 7204 0623 4 This volume contains 14 reviews dealing with the most widely studied aspects of membrane dynamics: active and passive movements of membrane constituents, time-dependent changes in membrane composition and state, and loss or alteration of cell surface components. Each of the articles has been written by experts well recognized in their fields. The first review, by G. L. Nicholson, G. Poste and T. Ji, on the dynamics of cell surface organization provides a comprehensive and lucid discussion of the most commonly observed manifestations of membrane fluidity and the intracellular factors which affect them. The authors' extensive knowledge of the topic is evident from the well-integrated historical and methodological discussions in this review and by the truly impressive number of references (over 500). This is one of perhaps six articles in this volume which, in addition to providing the well-read investigator with a relatively up-to.date and complete listing of the important work on its topic, is also an excellent introduction for the novice. Specific methods for the study and manipulation of membrane components are considered in reviews on freeze fracture electronmicroscopy (S. C. McNutt), use of the phospholipid exchange proteins (J. C. Kader), and a brief article on metabolic manipulation of membrane lipids (A. F. Horwitz). The article on freeze-fracture is particularly well-presented, providing a chronological outline of the development of the method along with a brief discussion of interpretation of freeze fracture images and artifacts. A major strength of this article is its review of intracellular junctions as they appear in both thin-section and freeze-fracture. Kader's article on the phosphollpid exchange proteins contains a large amount of descriptive and practical information about these molecules, however stricter editing would have made the most generally useful aspects of the topic more accessible to the reader. While many of the articles in this volume deal with membrane dynamics

TIBS - December 1978 from a phenomenological viewpoint the review by H. K. Kimelberg on the influence of lipid fluidity on the activity of membrane enzymes discusses the effects of fatty acid composition, phase separation and cholesterol content on plasma and intracellular membrane enzymes from a functional and thermodynamic viewpoint. This review is well illustrated with extensive examples and figures relating to a number of different biological systems. The large number of changes in membrane composition which have been correlated with malignant transformation or cell cycle and growth density are reviewed in two well written articles, one on membrane glycolipids as cell surface receptors by D. R. Critchley and M. G. Vicker, and one on cell surface proteins by C. G. Gahmberg. Critchley and Vicker's review contains a brief but adequate introduction to glycolipids and their biosynthesis with a discussion of cell cycle, density, and transformation sensitive changes in glycolipid composition. While the relevance of such changes remains unclear, the discussion of glycolipids as receptors and transmembrane mediators of adenylate cyclase activity by cholera toxin, interferon, and growth regulating factors, provides important and interesting examples of glycolipid function. Gahmberg's article on cell surface proteins is distinguished by informative and critical discussions of transformation-related alterations in membrane proteins with particular and detailed emphasis of the protein fibroneetin. The second half of this collection deals with immunological aspects of membrane components. An interesting review of the possible practical use of cell surface antigens is provided by M. R. Price and R. W. Baldwin in an article on shedding of tumor cell surface antigens. Tumor cell surface antigens are further reviewed by M. Cikes and S. Friberg Jr. in an article which focuses on mechanisms by which heterogeneity or alterations in surface antigens are produced, and by R. Hyman discussing somatic genetic analysis of murine lymphoid tumors. Those not already familiar with the systems discussed in this latter article may have difficulty divining its relevance to membrane dynamics. By contrast, a review by K. G. Sundqvist on the dynamics of antibody binding and complement interactions at cell surfaces is exceptionally welt presented and contains an illuminating discussion of antibody lattice formation on cell surfaces. In addition, Sundqvist discusses a number of practical concepts relating quite gener-

287 ally to antibody-cell surface interactions which will be of use to membranologists and immunologists alike. The two final articles deal with the much investigated topic of cell surface immunoglobulin and receptors on lymphocytes. A review by E. R. Unanue and G. F. Schreiner on the structure and function of cell surface immunoglobulin is concise relative to its topic and requires more understanding of cellular immunology than is provided by its meagre introduction. The final review by S. de Petris on distribution and mobility of cell surface components in lymphocytes contains comprehensive discussions of capping and patching, the independence of cell surface components,~lucid discussions of the role of microtubules and microfilaments, and the relation of cell motility to cell surface mobility. My hat goes off to de Petris for including a section entitled 'Biological Significance of Capping', since such considerations are most frequently found in introductions and conclusions of such reviews and are more often philosophical than truthful. In summary, this volume is distinguished by a number of quite useful and wellprepared articles on aspects of cell surface dynamics of current interest. The articles, however, are reviews in the strictest sense; with few exceptions they concentrate on a straightforward recounting of published results with little attempt at editorial comment and only minimal attention to future trends or directions for needed research. For the most part, the book is not for the beginner: students and researchers conversant with the concepts discussed will find a great deal of information in it. In this context, a particularly appealing aspect of the articles is that references are cited in the text by author rather than number, and are listed at the end of each Chapter with the full title of each article cited. This is an extremely useful feature for those seeking to review selectively topics discussed in the text. Although this book purports to have a single theme, it covers a rather wide range of topics, and consequently, not all readers will be interested in all of the reviews. This, in addition to the fact that it is quite expensive relative to comparably sized volumes of the same type may mean that it is more suited to a library collection than to a scientist's bookshelf. CARL M. COHEN

C. M. Cohen is a Research Fellow in Biology at Harvard University, Cambridge, MA, U.S.A.

Biology textbook The Study of Biology 3rd Edition

by Jeffrey J. W. Baker and Garland E. Allen, Addison-Wesley, Inc., California, Massachusetts, London, Amsterdam, Ontario and Sydney, 1978. £13.50 (xviii W 1122 pages) 1SBN 0 201 00409 7 The brilliant electron micrograph showing the malignant effects of Polyoma virus on a normal cell is a most apt choice for the title page of this book and will delight the eye of any virologist. The ordered presentation of Biology beginning with the cell and continuing logically with the structure and function of organisms, and then development and evolution, graduates naturally to ecological relationships and animal behaviour. The authors have prepared a volume which encompasses most aspects .of the biological world but in so doing have not sacrificed detail for the scope of the subject. The diagrams are clear, and the colour plates most commendable, particularly those illustrating the development of the human foetus. An appreciation of Science requires not only a grasp of the facts of Science, but also a realization of the processes by which Scientific knowledge is acquired; the references to technical methods and examples of experimental work illustrate well the methods of biological study. The text presents a good example of the mingling of two approaches, in that it covers broad biological principles, but at the same time presenting a t h o r o u g h examination of representative plants and animals. The addition of new material and the reorganization of previously existing material in this edition reflect the rapid development of biological science that has occurred in recent years; those chapters devoted to ecological relationships in particular will appeal to students of Life Science and the increasingly topical study of pollution. No student of Biology is able to proceed far without a basic knowledge of elementary Chemistry and Biochemistry and the authors have made provision for this by including chapters which assure that the reader has review and reference material easily available. The chapter concerned with the molecular biology of the gene deserves a special recommendation. The study of DNA replication is reported in a very clear concise fashion and the importance of the genetic code is adequately expressed. The exercises included at the end of each chapter should assist the student in review-