Oxford Dictionary of Biochemistry and Molecular Biology - Hardcover

Hardcover

ISBN 10: 0198547684 ISBN 13: 9780198547686

Publisher: Oxford University Press, 1997

Synopsis

This book provides a survey of current biochemistry and molecular biology in the form of a dictionary. It contains short but informative entries arranged under more than 17,000 headwords, providing fundamental information that is often difficult to locate in today's overspecialized world. The book defines many of the terms used in molecular biology and describes the essential features of over 2,000 enzymes and proteins, including the reactions they catalyze or functions they perform, with filenames that facilitate the location of entries in databases of sequences. Many entries describe chemical compounds of relevance to biochemists, with approximately 950 symbols and abbreviations. In addition, many physico-chemical laws, constants, and formulae are detailed.

About this title

From Booklist

Just as its title suggests, this work is a dictionary of more than 17,000 terms currently in use in the fields of biochemistry and molecular biology. Entries are uniformly concise, with entries for the most complex topics (such as protein) covering only about half a page. In a single alphabet, the dictionary includes topics and methods, chemical substances, and brief biographical entries of key scientists. The only illustrations are structure diagrams of the more complex chemical compounds. Appendixes help the reader understand scientific nomenclature and Greek symbols, list organizations and Web sites of interest in the field, and cover current hot topics in biochemistry. Despite its low price (especially for a science reference source), this dictionary is not for every library. Because it will require a significant scientific background to be able to understand the content of this work, it is beyond the reach of the casual reader. Libraries supporting research or college-level study in the field will find it useful, but other libraries will be able to rely on existing chemical and biological reference works to cover this material. For public libraries, the eighth edition of the McGraw Hill Encyclopedia of Science and Technology [RBB S 15 97] and The Merck Index (12th ed., Merck, 1996), which is an excellent source for information on chemical compounds, will fill most needs.

Review

Praise for the First Edition:

" . . . a wealth of useful and interesting information."--SGM Quarterly

"The best conceived and produced specialized scientific dictionary this reviewer has ever seen . . . enthusiastically recommended."--Choice

"A quite useful book . . . can be recommended for one's office or laboratory [and] should certainly be obtained by libraries."--Journal of Medicinal Chemistry

"An invaluable source for biochemists as well [as] other biologists, for teachers and their students . . . has to be on the shelves of each biological laboratory."--Immunological Investigations

Edition details

• Publisher: Oxford University Press
• Publication date: 1997
• ISBN 10: 0198547684
• ISBN 13: 9780198547686
• Binding: Hardcover
• Language: English
• Number of pages: 752
• Editor: Smith A. D., Datta S. P., Smith G. Howard, Campbell P. N., Bentley R., McKenzie H.A.