Book Reviews
Dictionary of Biomedical Acronyms
JACQUES DUPAYRAT
Editions SCM, Paris, 1979,pp. 109,40F
GEX, GF, GFFS, GFH, GFI, GFP, G F R and on and on.
Wonderful stuff. One can always be critical, of course. GPI is
not only glucose phosphate isomerase. SOD would have been
omitted by the punctilious. TCA is given only three identities (I
will here disclose generously my latest acquisition, which is ‘total
cholic acid’). But Dr. Dupayrat has been diligent; no less than
six derivations for FA; HAREM (heparin assay rapid easy
method) and HELP (heat escape lessening posture) must have
taken some trapping, and the discovery of SQUID (superconducting quantum interference device) was probably a proud
moment for our author. He also has humility, however. His
Foreword ends: ‘Just a few words more to say that perfection is
not part of this world and particularly in the case of such a
book, where said perfection depends much on the imaginative
mind of each author-scientist who takes deliberately a great
pleasure in casting every time new coded abbreviations!’.
Imaginative author-scientists, this book is for you.
It is always exciting to discover unexpectedly a fellow enthusiast
for some hobby one holds dear, and as soon as I saw Dr.
Dupayrat’s book I knew I had found a fellow acronymatist. Dr.
Dupayrat deserves special respect from our small Band of
Acronym Collectors (BOAC beat us to that one, unfortunately),
for he has not secreted his collection in some locked filing box
but has actually published his treasures from the biomedical
literature for all to see. The sheer joy of seeing them all, over
3500 old friends and new, in delightful alphabeticized columns
to the extent of 109 pages can probably be appreciated only by a
student in this area. In fact some might well take issue with Dr.
Dupayrat for thus displaying them publicly: uncaring authors,
not content to let them rest in splendid lists, might be tempted to
steal specimens from his collection for use in their next paper.
Not since the published lists of the Huntingdonshire Cabmen
has there been such a collection. To dip at random is a delight:
A. G. J. EVANS
Introduction to Biochemistry (2nd Edition)
JOHN W. SUTTIE
Holt Reinhart and Winston,New York, 1977,pp. x
Paperback International Edition, f 7.50
+ 431,
This book is attractively produced and printed, the formulae and
equations are well displayed, the diagrams are clear (aided by
the judicious use of blue ink) and the chapters begin with a brief
summary and end with problems and suggestions for further
reading. The style of writing, however, is coldly scientific and
impersonal with no lighter touches and the book will probably
be read strictly for business rather than for pleasure. The author
states that he has arranged his material in a rather classical
manner (e.g. buffers, cellular composition and morphology,
carbohydrate chemistry and so on), with emphasis on chemistry
(particularly of carbohydrates and lipids, because of deficiencies
in these matters in organic-chemistry courses), and mammalian
metabolism forms the central core of the course. The book is
derived from a one-semester course at the University of
Wisconsin, taken by a variety of students, and for some it will be
their first and last exposure to a biochemistry course. Maybe it is
important for such people to be able to distinguish between idose
and gulose or know the biosynthetic pathway for valine, but my
own feeling is that once-and-for-all biochemistry students should
ideally be presented with a grand panoramic view of bio-
chemistry which should stimulate their imagination and excite a
sense of awe and wonder at the beauty and ingenuity of living
cells doing their biochemistry. If the students are biologists
then there is all the more need for the grand tour of the biochemical variations and similarities of the whole range of life
forms and their metabolic interactions and interdependences.
What of the biochemical theories of the origin of life? What
about the remarkable versatility and vital role of bacteria in the
biosphere? What of the great biochemical cycles which start and
end with CO,, N, and O,? I could find little guidance, for
instance, on how the immense amount of CO, fixed ever got
back again or how N, was unfixed. And what is this genetic
engineering that the students read about in the newspapers?
There is a lot of information in this book which is competently
written and may well provide a very suitable text to accompany
a course of the Wisconsin type, but aesthetically I felt that too
much detail in the painting of the trees has obscured the view of
the woods, and many attractive woody vistas have been ignored.
Students reading this book slowly and carefully will learn a lot of
biochemical facts, but somehow I do not see them putting on Tshirts with the legend ‘Biochemistry is Fun’ and dancing round
the campus and then queueing to sign on to major in biochemistry.
B. A. KILBY
Chem Address Book
F. W. DERZ (Editor)
Walter de Gruyter, Berlin, 1978, pp. 3778, $259.00 the set
The Chem BUY direct International Chemical Buyers Directory
is designed to act as a complete information package for the
selection and purchase of chemical products from manufacturers and suppliers. It consists of three main volumes: Chem
Vol. 8
PRODUCT index, Chem SUPPLIERS, directory and Chem
ADDRESS book. There is also a supplementary volume called
the Chem SYNONYM dictionary, which lists all the trade
names and trivial names of the chemicals included in the main
index.
The system is operated in a very simple and logical manner.
To find out the nearest or most convenient manufacturer of a
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