- Hardcover: 342 pages
- Publisher: Harvard University Press (30 Jun 1998)
- Language English
- ISBN-10: 0674398556
- ISBN-13: 978-0674398559
- Product Dimensions: 24.3 x 16.5 x 2.7 cm
- Average Customer Review: 4.5 out of 5 stars See all reviews (2 customer reviews)
- Amazon Bestsellers Rank: 3,347,149 in Books (See Top 100 in Books)
- See Complete Table of Contents
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More About the Author
Product Description
Synopsis
This text is a complete but compact account for a general readership of the history of the revolution within molecular biology. The author takes us from the beginning of the 20th century convergence of molecular biology's two progenitors, genetics and biochemistry, to the perfection of gene slicing and cloning techniques in the 1980s. Drawing on the work of American, English, and French historians of science, Michel Morange describes the major discoveries - the double helix, messenger RNA, oncogenes, DNA polymerase - but also explains how and why these breakthroughs took place. The text contains mini-biographies of the founders of molecular biology: Delbruck, Watson and Crick, Monod and Jacob and Nirenberg.
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Customer Reviews
Most Helpful Customer Reviews
2 of 2 people found the following review helpful
Format:Hardcover
I myself being a student of biochemistry, sometimes (meaning very often) loose track of the sequence of discoveries leading to the present state of knowledge which is presented as a matter-of-factly in the books I use in my studies.
This book, presents the chronological sequence of events and describes the luck by which researchers like Crick and Watson was brought together. Likewise it presents a critical view on the researchers and whether it was the people who got the credit who made the actual discoveries.
Format:Paperback
As a scientist who studied Biochemistry about 20 years ago, I wanted to read a text that would cover some of the classic experiments of molecular biology. This book is an excellent read both for readers with knowledge of the science, or for the casual reader who wants to dip into the history of molecular biology. The book takes the reader from the "The one gene, one enzyme hypothesis" of the early 1940's through to the use of polymerase chain reaction in the mid 1980s. Concise chapters, well written, it was a welcome trip down memory lane, giving the background and historical context of classic experiments that I had studied as an undergraduate.
Most Helpful Customer Reviews on Amazon.com (beta)
Amazon.com:
2 reviews
3 of 3 people found the following review helpful
Cloning didn't happen by accident
1 Aug 2008
Format:Paperback
If you are interested in subjects like cloning and genetic engineering, then you should read Michel Morange's "The history of molecular biology". The developments just mentioned did not happen overnight. They are the product of decades of work and the book starts with the earliest experiments in molecular biology, the child of biochemistry and genetics. To make the book easier to understand, because some of the concepts are difficult, the book is organized by theme. In each theme progress is discussed in chronological order. Unlike how biology is taught, as a series of smooth steps, there actually was competition between various viewpoints and Morange outlines these. The major weakness of the book was that there was little biographic material on the scientists, although if molecular biology is like other sciences, then some of the characters must have been quirky. The book was written in French and translated by Matthew Cobb, but the translation was uneven and some of the sentence structure did not translate well into English. This was surprising since Cobb has shown himself to be an excellent writer as demonstrated in "The egg and sperm race". Overall the book was very interesting but the novice to molecular biology might have to do some extra research.
2 of 8 people found the following review helpful
OK
31 May 2008
Format:Paperback|Amazon Verified Purchase
Very French oriented ie. Jacob/Monod vs Brenner.
However, defined a problem I have answered on the relationship between population "genes" and molecular biology "genes". He missed my Theory of Genotypic Selection and my deconvolution of all the levels of replication and selectionist versus non-selectionist theories. However, I will use this book in my course. It's a start. I may even force the students to buy it in French as not all molecular biology knowledge is in English. He also missed my demonstrating to Sanger that acrylamide gels can resolve by one nucleotide. This level of resolution was first demonstrated by B.J. Davis in Len Ornstein's lab at Mt. Sinai. BJ has recently passed away.
However, defined a problem I have answered on the relationship between population "genes" and molecular biology "genes". He missed my Theory of Genotypic Selection and my deconvolution of all the levels of replication and selectionist versus non-selectionist theories. However, I will use this book in my course. It's a start. I may even force the students to buy it in French as not all molecular biology knowledge is in English. He also missed my demonstrating to Sanger that acrylamide gels can resolve by one nucleotide. This level of resolution was first demonstrated by B.J. Davis in Len Ornstein's lab at Mt. Sinai. BJ has recently passed away.
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