Emerging Model Organisms: A Laboratory Manual, Volume 2

This second volume of the groundbreaking Emerging Model Organisms series expands the collection of species presented in the first volume. Leading experts provide 18 new chapters on emerging model systems, ranging from honeybee, ant, and beetle to Ciona and amphioxus; squid and salamander to yam, Paramecium, and wallaby.

Francis Crick: Hunter of Life’s Secrets

“Olby brilliantly follows Crick through [his] creative years. By highlighting the scientist’s interactions with a growing group of others devoted to developing the field, he captures the excitement, false dawns and triumphs that followed the Watson-Crick model of DNA. Olby is fair to all of the early participants in DNA work: Linus Pauling, Maurice Wilkins and, above all, Rosalind Franklin and her collaborators at King’s College London...Issues of priority generate passion, but Olby’s account can be recommended for its dispassionate analysis and mastery of archival sources.”

“Crick could have wished for no more suitable biographer than science historian Robert Olby, who knew him for almost 40 years and who has had full access to family members and documents... Olby gives a vivid account both of Crick’s work over a period of 60 years, and of his life, and there is much in this book that will prove to be unfamiliar, perhaps especially to geneticists... For exploring and documenting all these and other aspects of Crick’s life in a readable, sensitive and not uncritical manner, readers from all backgrounds have much to thank Robert Olby for. His story will help to confirm Francis Crick as one of the key people responsible for the transformation of our understanding of life and its processes.”

“All throughout, Olby intersperses detailed accounts of the science with Crick’s persona. Neither perspective is at the expense of the other and together they enable and elevate the book, the two wound together in the mutual relationship of a helix. The personal details are as interesting as the science and, if anyone was wondering — yes, a genius like Crick was not uncomplicated...I suppose reviews of a biography could be divided into ones by those who knew the subject versus those who did not. I knew Francis Crick quite well and think Olby has gotten him right on all scores. Crick was guarded on first encounter but once he thought a person was ‘OK’ he let all loose. He knew and trusted Robert Olby and the result has given us something truly memorable.”

“Olby has compiled a substantial but enjoyable biography with 50 pages of references. Pen portraits of 70 of the principal characters are a valuable aid in this fine exploration of a remarkable mind.”

Biological Oxidations
(CSH Symposium, Vol. VII, 1939)

The period from the latter part of the 19th century through the 1940s may be regarded as a golden age of biochemistry, a time when the laboratories and lecture halls were ruled by giants such as Hoppe-Seyler, Buchner, Paster, Fischer, Hopkins, Warburg, Keilin and so on. During this period, the fundamental metabolic pathways of the cell were being elucidated by scientists whose names have become eponymous with their discoveries; for example, Gustav Embden, Otto Meyerhof and Hans Krebs. (read more)

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 1939 meeting “Biological Oxidations” (Vol. VII), 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:

Martin Hetzer examines the nuclear envelope.
The nuclear envelope (NE) is a highly regulated membrane barrier that separates the nucleus from the cytoplasm in eukaryotic cells. It contains a large number of different proteins that have been implicated in chromatin organization and gene regulation. Although the nuclear membrane enables complex levels of gene expression, it also poses a challenge when it comes to cell division. Read the full text

Synaptic matchmaking—lamina-specific mechanisms of axon targeting.
The specificity of synaptic connections is directly related to the functional integrity of neural circuits. Long-range axon guidance and topographic mapping mechanisms bring axons into spatial proximity of target cells and thus limit the number of potential synaptic partners. Synaptic specificity is then achieved by extracellular short-range guidance cues and cellsurface recognition cues. Neural activity may enhance the precision and strength of specific circuit connections. Read the full text

The multiplicity of plant auxin transporters.
Interacting and coordinated auxin transporter actions in plants underlie a flexible network that mobilizes auxin in response to many developmental and environmental changes encountered by these sessile organisms. The independent but synergistic activity of individual transporters can be differentially regulated at various levels. This invests auxin transport mechanisms with robust functional redundancy and added auxin flow capacity when needed. An evolutionary perspective clarifies the roles of the different transporter groups in plant development. Read the full text

Visit here for this month’s complete table of contents and to learn more.