Sydney Brenner: A Biography

Based on Sydney Brenner’s personal recollections, with contributions and correspondence from his close friends and colleagues, this book tells the lively story of the Nobel Laureate’s long and inspiring career, and how his significant and game-changing discoveries in the field of molecular biology inspired new generations of young scientists and promoted the development of science and biotechnology around the world.

Speaking of Genetics: A Collection of Interviews

These 22 interviews, conducted by University of California Professor Jane Gitschier for publication in the scientific journal PLoS Genetics, bring to life the practice and societal implications of contemporary genetics.

RNA Worlds: From Life’s Origins to Diversity in Gene Regulation

This volume reviews the role RNA is thought to have played early in the history of life on earth, when it may have preceded DNA as the hereditary material. It also examines the basis for the catalytic activities of RNA both on the early earth and in modern organisms then and now, as well as the recently revealed roles of regulatory RNAs in control of gene expression.

Francis Crick: Hunter of Life’s Secrets

“Robert Olby does a wonderful job of conveying how Crick’s personality and environment shaped his science...He refrains from judging his subject, preferring to imply rather than spell out the sharper edges of Crick’s character, and leaves it to the reader to assess Crick as a scientist and person...[Olby] offers a scholarly and well-researched (though highly readable) account of the life, quests and times of one of the most famous scientists of the 20th century.”

The Relation of Hormones to Development
(CSH Symposium, Vol. X, 1942)

Although the Symposia reached a milestone with this the tenth meeting, the circumstances of 1942 did not, as Demerec wrote in his introduction, lend themselves to a celebration. He expressed the hope that the meeting the following year would be held in happier times that “...would present a real opportunity...” for celebration. However, by the time he came to write the 1942 Annual Report, it had become clear that those happier times were far off and it was decided to postpone the Symposia indefinitely until conditions improved.

Hundreds of important advances in biology were announced, debated, and distilled at the Cold Spring Harbor Symposia. These meetings, held each year on the tranquil grounds of one of the world’s leading research institutes, have been notable events in biomedical research since 1933. Now this essential archive, dating from 1933 to 2003, is available online. Among highly influential volumes is the 1942 meeting “The Relation of Hormones to Development” (Vol. X), above is an excerpt from the exclusive new online introduction to this volume. (read more)

A new type of online review journal

• Spanning the complete spectrum of the molecular life sciences

• Article collections that build month by month

• Written and commissioned by experts in each field

Read these essential papers in this month’s issue:

Epigenetics—Jeannie Lee on X chromosome inactivation as a model for regulation by noncoding RNAs.
The X-linked region now known as the “X-inactivation center” (Xic) was once dominated by protein-coding genes but, with the rise of Eutherian mammals some 150–200 million years ago, became infiltrated by genes that produce long noncoding RNA (ncRNA). Some of the noncoding genes have been shown to play crucial roles during X-chromosome inactivation (XCI), including the targeting of chromatin modifiers to the X. Read the full text

Jack Szostak and colleagues on the appearance of the first cells.
Understanding the origin of cellular life on Earth requires the discovery of plausible pathways for the transition from complex prebiotic chemistry to simple biology, defined as the emergence of chemical assemblies capable of Darwinian evolution. We have proposed that a simple primitive cell, or protocell, would consist of two key components: a protocell membrane that defines a spatially localized compartment, and an informational polymer that allows for the replication and inheritance of functional information. Read the full text

Joshua Shaevitz and Zemer Gitai examine bacterial actin.
During the past decade, the appreciation and understanding of how bacterial cells can be organized in both space and time have been revolutionized by the identification and characterization of multiple bacterial homologs of the eukaryotic actin cytoskeleton. Some of these bacterial actins, such as the plasmid-borne ParM protein, have highly specialized functions, whereas other bacterial actins, such as the chromosomally encoded MreB protein, have been implicated in a wide array of cellular activities. Read the full text

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