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Molecular biology and biotechnology a comprehensive desk reference
66 Molecular Biology and Biotechnology A Comprehensive Desk Reference Edited by R A Meyers. Germany. 1995. DM89
pp 1034. VCH, Weinheim, ISBN l-56081-925-1
The blurb says that this weighty volume is perfect for the top of the desk or the laboratory bench. I agree with the former (if you’ve got a strong desk) but cannot see that it would be a lot of use in the lab. It contains about 250 ‘TIBS-length’ articles by different individuals who did not, as far as one can see, talk to each other. As a consequence there is quite a lot of duplication and a lack of detailed cross-referencing in the text, although the comprehensive Index makes up for this. There is a two-page Glossary of ‘basic terms’ which is insufficient, but each article has a dozen ‘key words’ defined. These may also be traced through the Index but a lot of them are in curious locations. For example, under the article on Transgenic Fish there is a key word definition of PCR. and under Kallikrein we find a definition of crossing-over. On the whole the articles are well-written by experts in the field and most are contained in 4-8 printed pages. Some authors seem to be out of their depth or at least not properly briefed as to what is required. Thus the article on Retinoids only really covers vitamin A and vision, and that on Steroids and Steroid Receptors is too short and gives a standard textbook diagram (p 872) of steroid interconversions and cites a 1979 reference. You could find out more on steroid receptors if you know to look under Zinc Fingers (p 979). The real story however, is in Molecular Endocrinology (p 278). It seemed to me that you might only make the connection between these from articles if you already knew most of it anyway. The authors are not well served by the illustrations. A number of ribbon diagrams of molecules are taken from the screen and are of little value (see p 7, for example, and you can’t see the labels on the diagram on p 172). These should have been printed as line diagrams not halftones. (There is a central colour plate section of some structures). The haemoglobin on p 403 is a classic, or antique, depending on how you look at it. It is from Dickerson and Geis, wrongly ‘Creis’ (and there are quite a lot of spelling mistakes, as well as a bit of arginine missing in the inside front cover structure). There does not seem to have been much effort made to standardise diagrams, line widths etc, making for a rather messy appearance, artistically speaking. There is good coverage of a variety of molecular biological topics including techniques (automation, bacterial manipulation, biomaterials, biosensors, diagnosis, drugs, enzyme assays, gels, HPLC, in situ hybridization, mass spec, NMR, CD, PCR, plant biotechnology. scanning tunneling e/m, etc) and as will be realised from this list, quite a strong biotechnology flavour. There are good articles on the chemistry of doing things (e.g. oligo and peptide synthesis), and on genetic engineering/ manipulation techniques, including transgenics, immunology, phage display, superantigens, etc. Another strong area is that of disease with articles on Alzheimer’s, AIDS, cardiovascular disease, diabetes (surprisingly more on insipidus than mellitus). Down’s, Fragile X, Gaucher’s. heart failure, haemophilia, motor neurone, neurofibromatosis (duplicated in tumour suppressor genes, p 934), pku. retinoblastoma and several sorts of cancer. It is difficult to see why Scleroderma Diagnosis (p 853) warrants a separate article. (It’s very interesting but a pretty rare disease.) Enzymes are sprinkled around in various places (enzyme assays, isoenzymes, etc) which works out quite well, but the articles on vitamins are poor and poorly cross-referenced into biological function. Sugars are also sprinkled around with some duplication in ‘Glycobiology’, which is separate from ‘carbohydrates’. The Editor really should have sorted out the duplications. I could mention X-ray analysis. two articles (p 741, p 949), Edman
BIOCHEMICAL EDUCATION 24( 1) 1996
degradation (no separate entry but in two sequencing articles), mass spec (as such and under protein analysis), response to stress/heat shock (in 3 places including Chaperones), and Growth Factors (separately, under Cytokines, and also in a curious article entitled The Renal System: this is the best place to find a description of PDGF, and to be fair, the Index will lead you to this). These duplications perhaps illustrate the fact that the Editor did not wield a strong enough hand or give authors a sufficiently precise remit. A CD ROM version with word searching facility would obviously get over these problems to some extent as has been done with the Blackwell’s Encylopedia of Molecular Biology edited by Kendrew (see Biochemical Education 23, 105, 1995). Overall this has been a major effort and the volume will be very useful as a reference. The next edition should be even better. In the paperback edition you get a lot for your money.
Medical Edition
Terminology:
A Programmed
Text
7th
by G L Smith, P E Davis and J T Dennerll. p 500. Delmar, ISBN o-8273-6304-4 New York. 1995. f28.50 This is the seventh edition since Medical Terminology: A Proqrammed Tat was first published in 1961. It has been revised by Jean T Dennerll. The subsequent editions have brought out greater improvements to the original idea and approach to the teaching of medical terminologies. First-time users of this book will discover that it is a mid-level terminology text teaching a word-building system using a programmed learning format. Traditional teaching of medical students and paramedics does not place a lot of emphasis on medical terminologies and yet this is the medium of communication in the trade. This results in understanding and grasping of the subject matter of medicine at a slow space. Medical Terminology is aimed at bridging this gap and enhancing the learning of medicine. It is an excellent adjunct to any text students may use to study clinical medicine. The greater percentage of medical terminologies have been demystified thereby facilitating the grasping of the medical concepts. The indexing is adequate and more comprehensive than one would expect in a manual. The text is succintly written with an initial introduction of the Greek and Latin root words. The prefixes, suffixes and affixes are then introduced in each unit of study. One appealing aspect of the book is that it has been designed for self study with a lot of ‘do it yourself’ word-building exercises. Each unit is built on the previous one thus making the flow of learning of the medical terminologies much easier to grasp. Included in some units is a large collection of medical abbreviations with their full meanings given. The authors have continued to make a determined effort to keep the definitions and explanations brief. This has resulted in a rare clarity in a text involving technical or medical terms. This seventh edition of Medical Terminology brings with it some very attractive improvements over the previous editions. These include amongst others: (a) new, full-colour illustrations, diagrams and photos that appear near their reference in the text, (b) colour highlights added to word parts such as blue for prefixes, magenta for suffixes and bold for word roots and combining forms, (c) new word origin frames with reference to mythology, legends and original language meanings developed to help students associate English medical words thereby aiding memory retention by learning term origins through fascinating tales, (d) revision of case studies with the inclusion of new vocabulary exercises, and (e) inclusion of new frames with deletion of obsolete terms using the appropriate reference documents in the field.
pp 1034. VCH, Weinheim, ISBN l-56081-925-1
The blurb says that this weighty volume is perfect for the top of the desk or the laboratory bench. I agree with the former (if you’ve got a strong desk) but cannot see that it would be a lot of use in the lab. It contains about 250 ‘TIBS-length’ articles by different individuals who did not, as far as one can see, talk to each other. As a consequence there is quite a lot of duplication and a lack of detailed cross-referencing in the text, although the comprehensive Index makes up for this. There is a two-page Glossary of ‘basic terms’ which is insufficient, but each article has a dozen ‘key words’ defined. These may also be traced through the Index but a lot of them are in curious locations. For example, under the article on Transgenic Fish there is a key word definition of PCR. and under Kallikrein we find a definition of crossing-over. On the whole the articles are well-written by experts in the field and most are contained in 4-8 printed pages. Some authors seem to be out of their depth or at least not properly briefed as to what is required. Thus the article on Retinoids only really covers vitamin A and vision, and that on Steroids and Steroid Receptors is too short and gives a standard textbook diagram (p 872) of steroid interconversions and cites a 1979 reference. You could find out more on steroid receptors if you know to look under Zinc Fingers (p 979). The real story however, is in Molecular Endocrinology (p 278). It seemed to me that you might only make the connection between these from articles if you already knew most of it anyway. The authors are not well served by the illustrations. A number of ribbon diagrams of molecules are taken from the screen and are of little value (see p 7, for example, and you can’t see the labels on the diagram on p 172). These should have been printed as line diagrams not halftones. (There is a central colour plate section of some structures). The haemoglobin on p 403 is a classic, or antique, depending on how you look at it. It is from Dickerson and Geis, wrongly ‘Creis’ (and there are quite a lot of spelling mistakes, as well as a bit of arginine missing in the inside front cover structure). There does not seem to have been much effort made to standardise diagrams, line widths etc, making for a rather messy appearance, artistically speaking. There is good coverage of a variety of molecular biological topics including techniques (automation, bacterial manipulation, biomaterials, biosensors, diagnosis, drugs, enzyme assays, gels, HPLC, in situ hybridization, mass spec, NMR, CD, PCR, plant biotechnology. scanning tunneling e/m, etc) and as will be realised from this list, quite a strong biotechnology flavour. There are good articles on the chemistry of doing things (e.g. oligo and peptide synthesis), and on genetic engineering/ manipulation techniques, including transgenics, immunology, phage display, superantigens, etc. Another strong area is that of disease with articles on Alzheimer’s, AIDS, cardiovascular disease, diabetes (surprisingly more on insipidus than mellitus). Down’s, Fragile X, Gaucher’s. heart failure, haemophilia, motor neurone, neurofibromatosis (duplicated in tumour suppressor genes, p 934), pku. retinoblastoma and several sorts of cancer. It is difficult to see why Scleroderma Diagnosis (p 853) warrants a separate article. (It’s very interesting but a pretty rare disease.) Enzymes are sprinkled around in various places (enzyme assays, isoenzymes, etc) which works out quite well, but the articles on vitamins are poor and poorly cross-referenced into biological function. Sugars are also sprinkled around with some duplication in ‘Glycobiology’, which is separate from ‘carbohydrates’. The Editor really should have sorted out the duplications. I could mention X-ray analysis. two articles (p 741, p 949), Edman
BIOCHEMICAL EDUCATION 24( 1) 1996
degradation (no separate entry but in two sequencing articles), mass spec (as such and under protein analysis), response to stress/heat shock (in 3 places including Chaperones), and Growth Factors (separately, under Cytokines, and also in a curious article entitled The Renal System: this is the best place to find a description of PDGF, and to be fair, the Index will lead you to this). These duplications perhaps illustrate the fact that the Editor did not wield a strong enough hand or give authors a sufficiently precise remit. A CD ROM version with word searching facility would obviously get over these problems to some extent as has been done with the Blackwell’s Encylopedia of Molecular Biology edited by Kendrew (see Biochemical Education 23, 105, 1995). Overall this has been a major effort and the volume will be very useful as a reference. The next edition should be even better. In the paperback edition you get a lot for your money.
Medical Edition
Terminology:
A Programmed
Text
7th
by G L Smith, P E Davis and J T Dennerll. p 500. Delmar, ISBN o-8273-6304-4 New York. 1995. f28.50 This is the seventh edition since Medical Terminology: A Proqrammed Tat was first published in 1961. It has been revised by Jean T Dennerll. The subsequent editions have brought out greater improvements to the original idea and approach to the teaching of medical terminologies. First-time users of this book will discover that it is a mid-level terminology text teaching a word-building system using a programmed learning format. Traditional teaching of medical students and paramedics does not place a lot of emphasis on medical terminologies and yet this is the medium of communication in the trade. This results in understanding and grasping of the subject matter of medicine at a slow space. Medical Terminology is aimed at bridging this gap and enhancing the learning of medicine. It is an excellent adjunct to any text students may use to study clinical medicine. The greater percentage of medical terminologies have been demystified thereby facilitating the grasping of the medical concepts. The indexing is adequate and more comprehensive than one would expect in a manual. The text is succintly written with an initial introduction of the Greek and Latin root words. The prefixes, suffixes and affixes are then introduced in each unit of study. One appealing aspect of the book is that it has been designed for self study with a lot of ‘do it yourself’ word-building exercises. Each unit is built on the previous one thus making the flow of learning of the medical terminologies much easier to grasp. Included in some units is a large collection of medical abbreviations with their full meanings given. The authors have continued to make a determined effort to keep the definitions and explanations brief. This has resulted in a rare clarity in a text involving technical or medical terms. This seventh edition of Medical Terminology brings with it some very attractive improvements over the previous editions. These include amongst others: (a) new, full-colour illustrations, diagrams and photos that appear near their reference in the text, (b) colour highlights added to word parts such as blue for prefixes, magenta for suffixes and bold for word roots and combining forms, (c) new word origin frames with reference to mythology, legends and original language meanings developed to help students associate English medical words thereby aiding memory retention by learning term origins through fascinating tales, (d) revision of case studies with the inclusion of new vocabulary exercises, and (e) inclusion of new frames with deletion of obsolete terms using the appropriate reference documents in the field.