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we were so often able to converse over the Beckman since in this way I learnt my cell biology and even wrote a little book as a result. The interview with Walter Bodmer, in the same section, covers broader matters such as the validity of the opinions of scientists on matters outside their own expertise. As you see, I think it's a good read if you have £15.

P N Campbell

Biochemistry. A Review with Questions and Ex- planations (Third Edition)

by Paul Jay Fr iedman. pp 226. Little, Brown and Company , Bos ton /Toron to . 1987. £9.95

ISBN 0 - 3 1 6 - 2 9 3 7 4 - 1

This work is a review of medical biochemistry; it is not in itself a complete textbook. In order to function effectively as a review it should accurately summarize the content of a typical modern medical biochemistry course, and ideally it should organize the material in a manner designed to facilitate re-learning and retention for licensure examinations, etc. In my view the book falls short on both counts.

The most striking failure is in the nucleic acids/molecular biology content. Polynucleotide structure is treated in three pages; replication, transcription and translation get ten pages, of which eight are devoted to the genetic code and translation. These thirteen pages comprise six percent of the book; recent medical licensure examinations popular in North America devote about one quarter of their questions to nucleic acids/ molecular biology. Other noteworthy areas of weakness include the areas of membranes and receptors, lipoprotein inter- relations, metabolic interrelationships and neuropeptides. This situation reflects not space limitations as much as an overall old- fashioned view of biochemistry, and consequently, an inappro- priate balancing of space allocation. Vitamins and coenzymes get 16 pages; mono- and disaccharide structures are given five; a problem on recognition of purines and pyrimidines among other ring structures takes up a whole page. The book does, however, devote reasonable space to clinically relevant topics such as gas transport, pH regulation and heme degradation.

The book presents biochemical information in a simple, uncluttered manner, often simplified to the point of error:

In contrast [to fibrous proteins], the globular proteins are spherical and water-soluble, and they consist mainly of random coils with occasional stretches of a-helices.

Many other errors do not appear to be attempts to simplify; they seem to reflect imprecise use of language or misunderstanding of the point. For example:

Glycogen phosphorylase in human tissues removes glucose from tissue glycogen by phosphorylation to glucose-l-phospate.

Anaerobic tissues, such as exercising muscle or, in cases of coronary-artery disease, an inadequately perfused myo- cardium, cannot utilize the TCA cycle or oxidative phos- phorylation.

There are two hydrogen-electron carriers in oxidative phosphorylation that contain non-heine, [sic] iron proteins. Their iron atoms bind directly to the enzyme without requiring a porphyrin ring. These carriers are succinate dehydrogenase and N A D H dehydrogenase.

pK~ = 6.1 CO 2 q.- H20 ~ H2CO 3 ~ H + + HCO~

The glass of the bottle, on the other hand, has a rigid crystalline structure.

The overall organization of material in this book is that of a traditional biochemistry course of the mid 1960s, with early chapters on amino acid, carbohydrate, etc structure; enzymes and energetics. Chapters on metabolism begin halfway through the book. Topics sometimes appear at locations which are not readily predictable and which tend to interrupt the flow, eg heme degradation in the chapter on the tricarboxylic acid cycle and oxidative phosphorylation. There appears to have been no attempt, other than elimination of detail, to arrange the material in a manner appropriate to the task of a student who is reviewing the topic.

Questions with answers and explanations take up a large fraction of the space. Most of these are of the one best answer type or the matching type. Notable exceptions occur in the sections on pH and energetics, which contain problems requiring calculation. There are no examples of the more complicated multiple choice question format found, for example, in the National Board of Medical Examiners Part I examination. By and large the question content is quite simple, a useful property if one's goal is building confidence. It would, however, be a serious error to assume that these questions reflect the degree of difficulty to be expected in licensure examinations. In keeping with their simplicity, many of the questions do not have (and do not need) explanations.

In summary, I feel the book is seriously flawed, and I cannot recommend it. Conversations with medical students at my institution suggest that the previous edition has been quite popular with its intended audience. Evidently the simplification of the material is compelling; if the text could be corrected, the content brought into modern times and the quality of the questions enhanced the book would be valuable.

James Baggott

Biochemistry (Second Edition)

by Geoff rey Zubay . pp 1226. Basingstoke, UK. 1988. £22

Macmil lan Publishing, ISBN 0 - 0 2 - 4 3 2 0 8 0 - 3

The earliest impression I formed during the first stages of evaluating this book was that it was very different from the First Edition which was published four years previously. In this I was influenced by: (i) the new outer appearance; (ii) the change of publisher; (iii) the larger format, although the number of pages is essentially the same; (iv) the use of a bold purple for highlighting of headings, etc, rather than the more sedate, rusty- brown of the former edition; (v) the presence of a glossary, and of answers to end-of-chapter problems; (vi) the organisation into six parts (comprising 36 chapters), rather than five parts (comprising 32 chapters).

My mature impression is that the book is more uniformly readable, much better integrated, more balanced in style, approach and coverage than its predecessor. This is very likely a reflection of the involvement of the coordinating author in almost one-half of the chapters, and of the part played by a good editorial assistant in the book's production.

Its release coincided with that of the Third Edition of Stryer's textbook, making comparison almost inevitable. The content of the two books is rather similar though the extent of coverage naturally varies. Zubay's book comes out as containing much more metabolism than Stryer's and in this may have a slightly wider appeal amongst those who believe that metabolism, though difficult, is important.

This book should find increasing acceptance as a basic textbook especially for undergraduate students majoring in biochemistry and molecular biology, and for graduate students doing research in this or in related disciplines.

F Vella

BIOCHEMICAL EDUCATION 16(4) 1988