Aug 7, 2016 08:21 PM
(This post was last modified: Aug 9, 2016 04:15 AM by Yazata.)
I want to recommend a book that I just discovered. I think it is one of the best introductions to molecular biology that I've ever seen.
It's 'The Machinery of Life' by David Goodsell of the Scripps Research Institute in San Diego.
The beauty of this book (and it is literally beautiful) is Goodsell's use of colorful images (some computer generated, some hand-drawn) to depict the macromolecules so important in life (nucleic acids, proteins, lipids and polysaccarides). They are shown interacting with the other molecules that surround them in real life. (Biochemical molecules are so small that gravity has almost no effect on them. They are influenced almost entirely by the other molecules that surround them.) Biochemical reactions don't happen in isolation, the way that textbooks typically depict them. There there are always other molecules crowded around. In more advanced eucaryotic cells, cellular membranes exist in part so as to control the concentrations of these.
As one of the reviewers says, you can't tear your eyes away from the illustrations, you end up studying each one for five minutes. Not just beginners, but seasoned biologists too.
Goodsell says it so well that I'll just quote him: "The human body is a living breathing example of the power of nano-technology. Almost everything happens at the atomic level. Individual molecules are captured and sorted, and individual atoms in these molecules are shuffled from place to place, building entirely new molecules. Individual photons of light are captured and used to direct the motion of individual electrons through electrical circuits. Molecules are packaged and transported expertly over distances of a few nanometers... Like the machines of our modern world, these machines are built to perform specific tasks efficiently and accurately. These tasks, however, are molecule-sized tasks and the molecular machines in cells have been perfected to operate on the level of atoms."
After several chapters describing this basic molecular biology stuff in some detail, he launches into a detailed description of E. coli, a representative bacterium, and contrasts this procaryotic cell with the much more complicated and diverse eucaryotic cells found in the human body. He devotes a later chapter to viruses. And there's a chapter about the meaning and signficance of 'life' and 'death' at the molecular/cellular and the macro-structural levels. He finishes up with a discussion of drugs and poisons on the molecular level.
Even better, the book is very reasonably priced, less than $20 for a hardcover (from Springer, no less). I already have an e-book copy and have ordered a print copy too.
https://www.amazon.com/Machinery-Life-Da...0387849246
Here's something cool - the 'Molecule of the Month', where each month Goodsell and his collaborators beautifully illustrate a new molecule from molecular biology and explain something about it.
http://pdb101.rcsb.org/motm/motm-by-date
Here's the Zika virus, the May 2016 Molecule of the Month -
http://pdb101.rcsb.org/motm/197
It's 'The Machinery of Life' by David Goodsell of the Scripps Research Institute in San Diego.
The beauty of this book (and it is literally beautiful) is Goodsell's use of colorful images (some computer generated, some hand-drawn) to depict the macromolecules so important in life (nucleic acids, proteins, lipids and polysaccarides). They are shown interacting with the other molecules that surround them in real life. (Biochemical molecules are so small that gravity has almost no effect on them. They are influenced almost entirely by the other molecules that surround them.) Biochemical reactions don't happen in isolation, the way that textbooks typically depict them. There there are always other molecules crowded around. In more advanced eucaryotic cells, cellular membranes exist in part so as to control the concentrations of these.
As one of the reviewers says, you can't tear your eyes away from the illustrations, you end up studying each one for five minutes. Not just beginners, but seasoned biologists too.
Goodsell says it so well that I'll just quote him: "The human body is a living breathing example of the power of nano-technology. Almost everything happens at the atomic level. Individual molecules are captured and sorted, and individual atoms in these molecules are shuffled from place to place, building entirely new molecules. Individual photons of light are captured and used to direct the motion of individual electrons through electrical circuits. Molecules are packaged and transported expertly over distances of a few nanometers... Like the machines of our modern world, these machines are built to perform specific tasks efficiently and accurately. These tasks, however, are molecule-sized tasks and the molecular machines in cells have been perfected to operate on the level of atoms."
After several chapters describing this basic molecular biology stuff in some detail, he launches into a detailed description of E. coli, a representative bacterium, and contrasts this procaryotic cell with the much more complicated and diverse eucaryotic cells found in the human body. He devotes a later chapter to viruses. And there's a chapter about the meaning and signficance of 'life' and 'death' at the molecular/cellular and the macro-structural levels. He finishes up with a discussion of drugs and poisons on the molecular level.
Even better, the book is very reasonably priced, less than $20 for a hardcover (from Springer, no less). I already have an e-book copy and have ordered a print copy too.
https://www.amazon.com/Machinery-Life-Da...0387849246
Here's something cool - the 'Molecule of the Month', where each month Goodsell and his collaborators beautifully illustrate a new molecule from molecular biology and explain something about it.
http://pdb101.rcsb.org/motm/motm-by-date
Here's the Zika virus, the May 2016 Molecule of the Month -
http://pdb101.rcsb.org/motm/197
![[Image: PMC2854386_jcb.1891pifig2.png]](https://openi.nlm.nih.gov/imgs/512/68/2854386/PMC2854386_jcb.1891pifig2.png)