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Methods in neurobiology, Vol. 1
Neurochemistry International, Vol. 5, No. 3. pp. 345 347, 1983.
0197q3186/83/030345-03503.00/0 © 1983 Pergamon Press Ltd.
Printed in Great Britain. All rights reserved
B O O K REVIEWS Methods in Neurobiology, Vol. 1. Edited by ROBERT LAHUE. Published by Plenum Press, 1981. ISBN 0-306-40517-2 (Vol. 1}. The Editor of this new series states that it aims to develop in the reader "a critical awareness and evaluation of the sophisticated methodologies employed in this area of research". The present reviewer has therefore addressed himself primarily to the problem of ascertaining if this, the first volume, does in fact fulfil this stated aim. Before tackling this problem however the following s u m m a r y of the book is in order. Volume 1 consists of a tome of 600 pages, divided into 9 chapters which vary considerably in length from a total of 14 pages, for Chapter 8, to a total of 124 pages, for Chapter 1. It is well indexed, nicely printed and adequately bound. The subjects covered in the three smallest chapters are Freeze-Fracturing (K. H. Pfenninger), Cell Culture (K. N. Prasad) and Immunological Techniques in Biochemical Investigation (J. S. Woodhead and R. J. Thomson). Whilst the experimental and descriptive coverage of the first two topics is good, the chapter on Immunological Techniques reads rather as a general review article. In fact this particular chapter reflects its title, which is not specific for Neurobiology, so that any criticism of the content should perhaps be reserved for the editorial (?) choice of topic. Now, both of the two medium sized chapters on the subjects of Single-Cell Isolation and Analysis (N. Osborne) and Tissue and Organ Culture (W. T. Schlapfer), contain really excellent concise accounts of the current methodologies in these important experimental areas. It is the Reviewer's belief that the book is worth purchasing on this score alone. It was in the reading of the first two of the remaining four major chapters that the Reviewer found the greatest difficulty in accepting the validity of the editorial claims. Thus a careful study of the chapter on Enzyme Kinetics (P. K o n t r o and S. S. Oja) led the Reviewer to the opinion that whilst the Authors had written an utterly competent and complete account of the topic, it did not lead him to
develop any new critical awareness or evaluation of enzyme kinetics as an experimental method in Neurobiology. Unfortunately, exactly the same c o m m e n t applies to the Reviewer's study of the Spectrophotometry and Fluorometry chapter written by the Editor (R. Lahue). Further the Reviewer found it difficult to understand the ommission of any reference to micro-spectrophotometry and microfluorometry in the chapter because of the obvious relevance of these techniques to Neurobiological studies. Also, surely the list of references should have included the late Professor R. A. Morton's magnum opus Biochemical Spectroscopy (Hilger, 1975). However, the remaining two large chapters on Enzyme Histochemistry (E. Marani) and The Squid Giant Axon: Methods and Applications (P. Rosenberg) seemed to amply fulfill the Editors hopes. The Reviewer certainly enjoyed Marani's excellent account of enzyme histochemistry probably because of his attention to detail. Dr. Rosenberg's chapter makes fascinating reading and he should be congratulated not only for making a substantial contribution to our present state of knowledge of the squid giant axon but also for performing this major task only eight years after a previous major review. The Reviewer's opinion of this first volume in the new series may be summarized as follows--out of a total of nine chapters, six were found to be well written accounts of methodologies pertinent to Neurobiology. The remaining three chapters, whilst generally speaking competently written, seemed to lack the specificity implied in the title. Overall then a good start but clearly if the series is to be able to compete with other established ones such as Research
Methods in Neurochemistry, Methods of Neurochemistry and Progress in Neurobiology, it will need to improve this score. R. W. A. OLIVER
R. W. A. Oliver is currently Chairman o]" the Biochemical Society Techniques Group and a Lecturer in the School of Life Sciences, University of Sa![ord.
345
0197q3186/83/030345-03503.00/0 © 1983 Pergamon Press Ltd.
Printed in Great Britain. All rights reserved
B O O K REVIEWS Methods in Neurobiology, Vol. 1. Edited by ROBERT LAHUE. Published by Plenum Press, 1981. ISBN 0-306-40517-2 (Vol. 1}. The Editor of this new series states that it aims to develop in the reader "a critical awareness and evaluation of the sophisticated methodologies employed in this area of research". The present reviewer has therefore addressed himself primarily to the problem of ascertaining if this, the first volume, does in fact fulfil this stated aim. Before tackling this problem however the following s u m m a r y of the book is in order. Volume 1 consists of a tome of 600 pages, divided into 9 chapters which vary considerably in length from a total of 14 pages, for Chapter 8, to a total of 124 pages, for Chapter 1. It is well indexed, nicely printed and adequately bound. The subjects covered in the three smallest chapters are Freeze-Fracturing (K. H. Pfenninger), Cell Culture (K. N. Prasad) and Immunological Techniques in Biochemical Investigation (J. S. Woodhead and R. J. Thomson). Whilst the experimental and descriptive coverage of the first two topics is good, the chapter on Immunological Techniques reads rather as a general review article. In fact this particular chapter reflects its title, which is not specific for Neurobiology, so that any criticism of the content should perhaps be reserved for the editorial (?) choice of topic. Now, both of the two medium sized chapters on the subjects of Single-Cell Isolation and Analysis (N. Osborne) and Tissue and Organ Culture (W. T. Schlapfer), contain really excellent concise accounts of the current methodologies in these important experimental areas. It is the Reviewer's belief that the book is worth purchasing on this score alone. It was in the reading of the first two of the remaining four major chapters that the Reviewer found the greatest difficulty in accepting the validity of the editorial claims. Thus a careful study of the chapter on Enzyme Kinetics (P. K o n t r o and S. S. Oja) led the Reviewer to the opinion that whilst the Authors had written an utterly competent and complete account of the topic, it did not lead him to
develop any new critical awareness or evaluation of enzyme kinetics as an experimental method in Neurobiology. Unfortunately, exactly the same c o m m e n t applies to the Reviewer's study of the Spectrophotometry and Fluorometry chapter written by the Editor (R. Lahue). Further the Reviewer found it difficult to understand the ommission of any reference to micro-spectrophotometry and microfluorometry in the chapter because of the obvious relevance of these techniques to Neurobiological studies. Also, surely the list of references should have included the late Professor R. A. Morton's magnum opus Biochemical Spectroscopy (Hilger, 1975). However, the remaining two large chapters on Enzyme Histochemistry (E. Marani) and The Squid Giant Axon: Methods and Applications (P. Rosenberg) seemed to amply fulfill the Editors hopes. The Reviewer certainly enjoyed Marani's excellent account of enzyme histochemistry probably because of his attention to detail. Dr. Rosenberg's chapter makes fascinating reading and he should be congratulated not only for making a substantial contribution to our present state of knowledge of the squid giant axon but also for performing this major task only eight years after a previous major review. The Reviewer's opinion of this first volume in the new series may be summarized as follows--out of a total of nine chapters, six were found to be well written accounts of methodologies pertinent to Neurobiology. The remaining three chapters, whilst generally speaking competently written, seemed to lack the specificity implied in the title. Overall then a good start but clearly if the series is to be able to compete with other established ones such as Research
Methods in Neurochemistry, Methods of Neurochemistry and Progress in Neurobiology, it will need to improve this score. R. W. A. OLIVER
R. W. A. Oliver is currently Chairman o]" the Biochemical Society Techniques Group and a Lecturer in the School of Life Sciences, University of Sa![ord.
345