The Molecular Control of Cellular Activity

THE MOLECULAR CONTROL OF CELLULAR ACTIVITY. John M. Allen, Ed. New York, McGraw-Hill Book Co., Inc., 1962. 328 pp. $10.50. To those "molecular" biologists who make even a feeble attempt to keep up with the current spate of symposia in their field, the names of the contributors to this volume will read like a list of old friends. It is unfortunate that their subject matter will be almost equally familiar. There is no denying that the workers who have been chosen are very excellent ones whose synopses are in general succinct, readable and as thorough as space allows. There are discussions of a variety of mechanisms for cellular control, ranging from the importance of cell structure (Siekevitz), to that of hormones (Villee), but heavily weighted on the side of genetic structure and the nucleic acids (Swift, Demerec, Ingram, Hogness, Sinsheimer, Kornberg, Zamecnik, Pardee). In addition Paul Weiss, Torbjorn Caspersson and Hans A. Krebs have contributed equally fine chapters on their respective interests. The only real criticism is that the vast majority of the material covered gave this reader, at least, the sensation of de'ja vu. It is often the case that a symposium covers material which has, for the most part, been previously published in the professional journals. This sort of synthesis is not only acceptable but is often necessary to the worker with limited time who must keep up with the literature. However, when a symposium covers material which has, for the most part, been previously published in other symposia, it is more difficult to find a reason for its existence. The blurb on the jacket claims that, "This reference symposium covers topics of timely interest in cellular biology. . ." First of all, is any volume leaning as heavily on nucleic acid research as does this, yet publishing in 1962 speeches delivered in the spring of 1960 (without addenda) really timely? The work of Nirenberg and others has already made rhetorical many of the questions posed here on the concepts of coding, etc. Secondly, one would like to know precisely for whom this volume is to be a "reference." As it has extraordinarily little to say to the researcher in the fields discussed, perhaps it is for the student, or the workers in related fields. But this is the work of thirteen men, the majority of whom do not seem to have read each other's contributions, and the result might be somewhat confusing to the beginner. For example, Swift states of the structure of the Drosophila salivary gland chromosome, "that the protein concentration in interband regions is extremely low. . ." (p. 98), while Caspersson claims that, "in Drosophila . . . interbands with high protein content appear. . ." (p. 129). Even if one claims that this as well as the other contradictions present ought to be allowed, to show the uncertainty and