Petr Kuzmic wrote:
>Well, we are a stubborn bunch. Sometimes we just don't want to know...
>Why complicate a splendidly funded research project with annoying
>statistical facts? I must say, the "ancients" occasionaly surprise me
>with their level of rigor; why, they even knew calculus! Has anyone
>looked at the awesome papers by Guldberg and Waage from the 1870's?
>Impressive reading, I must say.
>I haven't read these, but I've read others from the 19th and early 20th
century (Pasteur, Buchner, Michaelis, Henri...) and you are certainly right
to suggest that we have no right to be disdainful of our predecessors'
work, which is many cases was supremely good. In the case of Michaelis,
probably the most mathematical of the authors I mentioned, it is striking
how _many_ good papers he wrote: a high output is not as modern a
phenomenon as we sometimes think. His most famous paper is just one of ten
he published in 1913, the leanest year that he had in the five-year period
leading up to the First World War. Of 94 publications between 1910 and 1914
at least four are still cited, and are considered to have laid the
foundations of enzyme catalysis, including inhibition and response to pH.
Henri and Pasteur also wrote a tremendous amount.
I'm beginning to sound as if I think quantity is more important than
quality, which is not my intention. Rather I want to agree with Petr about
the _quality_ of much of the classical work.
Anyway, this is as good an excuse as I'm likely to get to do a little
publicity for a book that you may otherwise never know about. (Trash this
message right now if this offends you). We are just entering the second
century of modern biochemistry, which started with Buchner's discovery of
cell-free fermentation in 1897, and the third century of studies of
catalysis, which can be regarded as having started with Elizabeth Fulhame
in 1794 (though Berzelius, 40 years later, is much better known). Moreover,
as Buchner's "enzyme" zymase was actually a mixture of glycolytic enzymes,
we are also entering the second century of studies of multi-enzyme systems.
To commemorate all this the University of Valencia has just published a
book (edited by guess who) entitled "New Beer in an Old Bottle: Eduard
Buchner and the Growth of Biochemical Knowledge". This sets out to trace
the historical background to Buchner's discovery and the consequences that
it has had over the past 100 years. It has 250 pages, contains modern
translations of Buchner's paper (as well as a facsimile of the original),
and costs just 2600 pesetas (that's about 17 US dollars, for those who
don't usually do their financial culations in pesetas). You can read more
about it at a web page at http://ir2lcb.cnrs-mrs.fr/~athel/buchner.htm.
Athel
Email: athel at ibsm.cnrs-mrs.fr
Site map: http://ir2lcb.cnrs-mrs.fr/~athel/sitemap.htm
MCA FAQ: http://ir2lcb.cnrs-mrs.fr/~athel/mcafaq.htm
MCA chapter from my book:
http://ir2lcb.cnrs-mrs.fr/~athel/mcai.htm
