A history of molecular biology

Author(s)

• Morange, Michel
• Cobb, Matthew

Bibliographic Information

A history of molecular biology

Michel Morange ; translated by Matthew Cobb

Harvard University Press, 2000, c1998

1st Harvard University Press pbk. ed

• : pbk

Other Title

Histoire de la biologie moléculaire

Note

Translation of: Histoire de la biologie moléculaire (Editions La Découverte, c1994)

Includes bibliographical references and index

Description and Table of Contents

Description

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.

Table of Contents

• Part 1 The birth of molecular biology: the roots of the new science
• the one gene-one enzyme hypothesis
• the chemical nature of the gene
• the "phage group"
• the birth of bacterial genetics
• the crystallization of the tobacco misaic virus
• the role of the physicists
• the influence of the Rockefeller Foundation
• a new world view
• the role of physics. Part 2 The development of molecular biology: the discovery of the double helix
• deciphering the genetic code
• the discovery of messenger RNA
• the French School. Part 3 The expansion of molecular biology: normal science
• genetic engineering
• split genes and splicing
• a new molecular biology
• the discovery of oncogenes
• from DNA polymerase to the amplification of DNA
• molecular biology in the life science. Appendix: definition of terms.

by "Nielsen BookData"

Details

• NCID: BA52844632
• ISBN:
  • 0674001699
• LCCN: 97047158
• Country Code: us
• Title Language Code: eng
• Text Language Code: eng
• Original Language Code: fre
• Place of Publication: Cambridge, Mass.
• Pages/Volumes: 336 p.
• Size: 24 cm
• Classification:
  • LCC : QH506
  • DC21 : 572.8/09
• Subject Headings:
  • LCSH : Molecular biology -- History