Synopsis
Discusses these two scientists' work with amber and their successes in extracting 100 million-year-old DNA samples
Reviews
YA-The Poinars, an entomologist and an electron microscopist, respectively, investigate some scientific secrets. Their interest in amber began in the mid-1960s; together they roamed the world gathering samples and, in their laboratory, meticulously searched for ways to examine the stones in order to gather evidence about the ancient forests that produced them. The authors and their colleagues successfully extracted and preserved DNA strands that were over 100 million years old and disclosed exciting information about ancient life. This book illustrates the challenges scientists encounter in their work and how diverse groups within the scientific community can work together for common goals. One chapter addresses the question of cloning dinosaurs, and another treats scientific ideas expressed in the movie Jurassic Park. The final chapter discusses the implications for the future and the many new areas of research opening up. Young scientists will be excited by both the authors' adventure and the intriguing new field of ancient-DNA study.
Penny Stevens, Fairfax County Virginia Public Library
Copyright 1995 Reed Business Information, Inc.
George Poinar, an entomologist at UC-Berkeley, and Roberta Poinar, an electron microscopist there, began with an avocational interest in amber and a simple question about the possibility of cell preservation in fossils often found in the hardened resin. It was only coincidence, they maintain, that their 1991 discovery that the tissue of bees preserved in amber contained DNA 25-40 million years old closely fit the subject of Michael Crichton's Jurassic Park. Here the husband-and-wife team details how a hobby led to a compelling thesis, taking readers on a tour of the world's fossil amber beds from Scandinavian beaches to the Caribbean to Russia, Africa and New Zealand, offering bits of gemology, social history and molecular science. The likelihood of a Jurassic Park scenario playing out in real life remains firmly theoretical, the Poinars reiterate, in their engaging tale of an absorbing search. Photos.
Copyright 1994 Reed Business Information, Inc.
Amber has always fascinated people, but the key role of amber in Jurassic Park (the book and the movie) has provoked even more interest in this fossilized resin. George Poinar, part of the team that first reported the isolation of DNA from an insect preserved in amber, has teamed up with wife and colleague Roberta Poinar, an electron microscopist in the entomology department at Berkeley, to produce this account of their adventures in search of amber and chronicles their scientific discoveries. Less technical than George Poinar's previous book, Life in Amber (Stanford Univ. Pr., 1992), this personal narrative is exciting, informative, and just plain fun to read. Recommended for general readers.
Joseph Hannibal, Cleveland Museum of Natural History
Copyright 1994 Reed Business Information, Inc.
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