Short Reviews

Date:
1966-1967
Reference:
PP/CRI/I/2/6/6
Catalogue details

Licence: In copyright

Credit: Short Reviews. Source: Wellcome Collection.

    13/59
    Review on Books Bell Ringers By Joseph Mindel During the Nineteenth Centuiy, public lectures on science at the Royal Insti tution in London, the /Jardin des Plantes in Paris, the Lçwell Institute in Boston, Cooper T/nion in New- York, and similar institutions in cities throughout Europe and America were remarkable not otily in number but also in content arid quality. Every field of science froni astronomy to zoology was analyzed; explained, demonstrat ed. And thóse called—or moved—to give the léctures were, quite properly, the leading scientists of the times. Let him who knows how, said Cervantes, ring the bells. Three books, each by a Nobel Lau reate, illustrate the continuing tradi tion, with some variations possible only in the Twentieth Century. Fundamental Genetic Mechanisms John C. Kendrew, deputy chairman of the Medical Research Council/Labo ratory for Molecular Biology in Cam bridge, England, delivered a series of 10 lectures on BBC Television in 1964 to an audience larger by many orders of magnitude than the largest of the pre-electronic era. The Thread of Life (Harvard University Press, Cam bridge, Mass., 1966, 112 pp., $4), which is based on the lectures, is sub titled an introduction to molecular biology. The molecules of major in terest are the two rriost complex and most important types, proteins and nucleic acids. Dr, Kendrew received the Nobel Prize fór his share in deter- minining the structure of proteins. Without condescension or the sacri fice of accuracy, the book provides an exceptionally / lucid account, on the level of the general reader, of the fun damental genetic mechanisms. Dr. Kendrew /describes the experiments and reasoning leading to the conclu sion that/the nucleic acids are the in form aticin carriers of living cells, the repositories of the blueprint which has to be/passed on from generation to generation, from parental cell to prog eny cell. The thread of life is the de oxyribonucleic acid (DNA) molecule rt/ich, with several kinds of ribonu- c acid (RNA), plays the key role. / In considering the functions of DNA in the cell, three questions must /be asked. How does DNA replicate it self? How does DNA direct the syn thesis of characteristic enzyme and protein molecules, thus passing on the hereditary information? What is the code by means of which this inform'a- I tion is stored along the DNA móle- cule? The answers, to the extent that they are presently known, are devel oped in elegant style, with the aid of more than 50 superb photographs placed together at the end of the book. The complexity of research in molec ular biology is indicated by the fact that the length of the ÍDNA in the 46 human chromosomes is about three feet—all contained in a single cell a thousandth of ap inch in diameter. As Dr. Kendrew points out, life is enor mously complicated, and the current fe action of DNA is a con- versimplification. Never- l this degree of under- :ourages him to think of of research in molecular own choices include the utations, the phenomenon : problem of cancer, and f life. The Present and Future of Biology Of Molecules and Men (. University of Washington Press, Seattle, 1966, 99 pp., $3.95) is based on the John Danz Lectures delivered in 1966 at the Uni versity of Washington by Francis Crick. Dr. Crick, a colleague of Dr. Kendrew in Cambridge, won his Nobel Prize for studies of the struc ture of DNA. The subject of the book, however, is not molecular biology nor DNA nor genetics. Instead he has taken vitalism as a theme and . . . written down the sort of thing that 1 find my friends and colleagues are say ing about our present and future knowledge of biology. It may per haps go without saying that Dr. Crick is concerned with refuting the vitalist position, which he considers to be all too prevalent, even in biological circles. Vitalism is the view, according to Dr. Crick, that the growth and be havior of living systems cannot be un derstood solely in terms of physics and chemistry but are directed by some special force. Such a viewpoint arises, he believes, because there are proc esses not easily explained by physical and chemical concepts, principally in three areas of biology: the borderline between the living and the nonliving, the origin of life, and the nature of Dr. Crick is aware that even the creation of a simple living organism from chemical elements may not con stitute a sufficient refutation of vital ism, since it can be argued that the synthetic system was lifeless until the vital force took over its workings. Hence, it is necessary in addition to be able to explain the behavior, even of such a form of life, on the basis of physical-chemical laws. While the facts and theories of molecular biology are presented only as they throw light on the three areas of biology crucial to the debate on vitalism, there is considerable overlap with the subject matter of The Thread of Life. It is surprising that Dr. Crick presents to a university audience a more simplified description of the structure and functions of DNA than Dr. Kendrew to a television audience. On a question like vitalism, which involves philosophy (if not faith), rather than science, it is possible to persuade but hardly to prove. Dr. Crick is so committed, in opposition, that at times he stretches the implica tions of present knowledge and falls into a shrillness of tone, such as is evi dent in the closing sentence of the last lecture: And so to those of you who may be vitalists I would make this prophecy: what everyone believed yes terday, and you believe today, only cranks will believe tomorrow. The Basic Laws of Physics , Dr. Kendrew notes that in biology, we deal with a very large and com plicated range ... of brute faits . . . And what we want to do is/1 link [them] together into a simple u fied scheme. In contrast, the p explains rather simple observations by a very sophisticated and s tellectual analysis. It is likel^ that Richard P. Feynman, '39, Nob/l Lau reate in nuclear physics, ' amused and might even a book, The Character of Physical Law (M.I.T. Press, Paperback Edition, Cambridge, Mass., 19677 173 pp., $2.45), is precisely a sophisticated and subtle analysis of the Physical laws that underlie all scientific principles. The activities of whi</h this book is the culmination are as /symbolic of the Twentieth Century as the lectures of Michael Faraday were of the Nine teenth. Dr. Feynman delivered the Messenger Lectures at Cornell Uni versity in 1964./The lectures were taped for television broadcast on BBC, which published/the original edition of the book in 1965. Subsequently 16-mm. films were made from the tapes. The scope/of the book is evident from the titles of some of the chapters: The Great:/ Conservation Principles, Symmetry/in Physical Law, The Dis tinction Between Past and Future, Probability and Uncertainty. The read er of thé book, no less than the viewer of the/ films, succumbs immediately, willingly, to Dr. Feynman's warmth >r. The originality of his ap proach (for example, deriving the ond law of thermodynamics from a i/chet-and-pawl on a rotatable shaft) Ad the keenness of his insights into the c laws of physics delight and stimu- the imagination. Technology I AP« I 7