Book Description

Authoritative. Concise. Easy-to-Use.

Schaum's Easy Outlines are streamlined versions of best-selling Schaum's titles. We've shortened the text, broadened the visual appeal, and introduced study techniques to make mastering any subject easier. The results are reader-friendly study guides with all the impressive academic authority of the originals.

Schaum's Easy Outlines feature:

• Concise text that focuses on the essentials of the course
• Quick-study sidebars, icons, and other instructional aids
• Sample problems and exercises for review
• Expert advice from authorities in the field

Reviews (1)

Excellent outline and overview
This little review and outline packs a lot of information into only about 130 pages. This means it makes for fairly dense reading given the technical level but it's obviously intended for the biochem or serious student. The book consists of 15 chapters ranging from 5 to 20 pages in length, depending on the subject. Key concepts or facts are emphasized and often highlighted in dark gray boxes throughout the text, and some chapters include solved problems. A sampling of the chapter titles includes Proteins; Lipids and Membranes; Enzyme Catalysis and Kinetics; Carhohydrate Metabolism; the Citric Acid Cycle; Nitrogen Metabolism; and Gene Expression and Protein Synthesis.

There are about 100 illustrations ranging from graphs and tables to the usual molecular structures and also diagrams of more complex molelcular reactions that require several steps or mechanisms such as the elongation step of polypeptide synthesis, the metabolic pathways of beta oxidation, as well as illustrations of longer ones requiring many steps, like the citric acid cycle, the role of amino transferases and glutamate dehydrogenase in nitrogen metabolism, the urea cycle and metabolism, and others.

Overall this is a useful little book that is one of the most concise and informative presentations of the most important concepts in biochemistry that I've seen, and at only nine bucks the price is right too. ... Read more

Book Description

This dynamic multimedia study brings Charles Colson, one of the foremost voices in America on the topic of integrating faith and life, and Nigel M. de S. Cameron, Ph.D., a highly respected bioethics expert, to your class or group! In this easy-to-learn format, they introduce bioethical topics and the Christian faith, and talk about how a worldview applies to these topics. The two dispel myths with solid, accurate information. And participants are motivated to talk about cloning, in vitro fertilization, stem-cell research, euthanasia, the future, and more! Serious topics-deep on insight-are sure to get everyone involved, thinking, and realizing they understand these hot issues a little bit better than before. Participants will discover how bioethical topics are relevant to them, and they'll have a better appreciation for God's precious creation-life! ... Read more

Reviews (1)

Great tool for Small Groups
Our small group is just completing the study above and everyone has taken away spritual and every day applications from each chapter.The mix of scripture, discussion, and media (CD and VHS)combine for a well balanced lesson that has impacted all of our lives.The topics discussed touch all of us in one way or another and arms you with the facts to face the ethical situations we find ourselves in every day. ... Read more

Book Description

Batzing's MICROBIOLOGY: AN INTRODUCTION offers a new approach in introductory microbiology, with an emphasis on teaching effectively the important concepts of the course without a strict focus on memorization. Pedagogical material, such as concept maps and flow diagrams, is carefully integrated throughout to enhance understanding and gives students a visual representation of difficult topics. The final portion of the text follows a portal of entry, or route of transmission organization, with material presented around the method by which microbes enter the host's body. ... Read more

Book Description

All students and researchers in environmental and biological sciences require statistical methods at some stage of their work. Many have a preconception that statistics are difficult and unpleasant and find that the textbooks available are difficult to understand.

Practical Statistics for Environmental and Biological Scientists provides a concise, user-friendly, non-technical introduction to statistics. The book covers planning and designing an experiment, how to analyse and present data, and the limitations and assumptions of each statistical method. The text does not refer to a specific computer package but descriptions of how to carry out the tests and interpret the results are based on the approaches used by most of the commonly used packages, e.g. Excel, MINITAB and SPSS. Formulae are kept to a minimum and relevant examples are included throughout the text.

... Read more

Reviews (1)

easy to read but...
This book is easy to read but don't expect to learn how to do the actual tests. If you only want to know what a test is about, this is a good book to start with. It only covers basic parametric and non-parametric tests.

One mistake that I found - Kolmogorov-Smirnov test is treated as an alternative to t-test, which is misleading. K-S test is for testing distributions not the means or medians. Though this is a common mistake, it should not come from a statistic book.

Not worth the money! ... Read more

Book Description

Liposomes have become an important model in fundamental biomembrane research, including biophysical, biochemical, and cell biological studies of membranes and cell function. They are thoroughly studied in several applications, such as drug delivery systems in medical applications and as controlled release systems, microencapsulating media, signal carriers, support matrices, and solubilizers in other applications. While medical applications have been extensively reviewed in recent literature, there is a need for easily accessible information on applications for liposomes beyond pharmacology and medicine. The Handbook of Nonmedical Applications of Liposomes fills this void.This unique new handbook series presents recent developments in the use of liposomes in many scientific disciplines, from studies on the origin of life, protein function, and vesicle shapes, to applications in cosmetics, diagnostics, ecology, bioreclamation, and the food industry. In these volumes many of the top experts contribute extensive reviews of their work. ... Read more

Book Description

From Jonathan Weiner, Pulitzer Prize-winning author of The Beak of the Finch, comes His Brother's Keeper -- the story of a young entrepreneur who gambles on the risky science of gene therapy to try to save his brother's life.

Stephen Heywood was twenty-nine years old when he learned that he was dying of ALS -- Lou Gehrig's disease. Almost overnight his older brother, Jamie, turned himself into a genetic engineer in a quixotic race to cure the incurable. His Brother's Keeper is a powerful account of their story, as they travel together to the edge of medicine.

The book brings home for all of us the hopes and fears of the new biology. In this dramatic and suspenseful narrative, Jonathan Weiner gives us a remarkable portrait of science and medicine today. We learn about gene therapy, stem cells, brain vaccines, and other novel treatments for such nerve-death diseases as ALS, Alzheimer's, and Parkinson's -- diseases that afflict millions, and touch the lives of many more.

It turns out that the author has a personal stake in the story as well. When he met the Heywood brothers, his own mother was dying of a rare nerve-death disease. The Heywoods' gene therapist offered to try to save her, too.

"The Heywoods' story taught me many things about the nature of healing in the new millennium," Weiner writes. "They also taught me about what has not changed since the time of the ancients and may never change as long as there are human beings -- about what Lucretius calls ‘the ever-living wound of love.'

"The Heywoods mean the whole story to me now: an allegory from the edge of medicine. A story to make us ask ourselves questions that we have to ask but do not want to ask. How much of life can we engineer? How much is permitted us?

"What would you do to save your brother's life?"

Reviews (6)

I Won't Forget the Heywoods Anytime Soon
I just finished "His Brother's Keeper" and will not forget this family for a long time. This book is incredibly sad but it also shows the hope of a family trying to reverse the course of a terrible illness. It is a story of the turn of a new century, when there was hope in gene therapy, in internet start ups, in Dolly the sheep.

The characterization within this book was excellent. The people who stuck out for me were Jamie, his brother Stephen and Stephen's wife Wendy. Jamie is the epitome of the driven man. His energy pops off the pages. Stephen is the searcher, the world traveler and, as Weiner writes, the Gen-X "slacker." That is, until Stephen finds his calling in carpentry and is just as driven as his mechanical engineer/entrepreneur brother.

Wendy is introduced later in the narrative. She is by her boyfriend's (eventually husband's) side as he goes through the progression of the disease. Whether arguing with a neighbor or keeping a visage of hope for her husband, she is a valuable presence in Stephen's life and in this book.

The author Jonathan Weiner is part of the story as well. He is captivated by the Heywoods and readily acknowledges it. His own mother is ill, and, as a "science writer," he has both knowledge and hope for the promise of new therapies and cures. Weiner writes of medicine, of the Heywood brothers, wives and parents, of September eleventh (briefly), and primarily, of hope. Hope and family are at the heart of this sad story of the new millennium.

Author's "cause" not clear
"His Brother's Keeper" is the author's extremely personal book and each reader's reaction is correspondingly likely to be uniquely (and probably intensely) personal. Thus I doubt if my own opinion expressed here will have any great generality. I'll post it anyway and apologize in advance for its specificity.

This is the third book about science and scientists by Jonathan Weiner that I have read. Based on what I saw as significant evolution in skill in the second ("Time, Love, Memory"), I had high expectations for this third. The book means to tell two interwoven stories. One is the very specific yet compellingly multi-faceted one of a young man, Stephen Haywood, who contracts an incurable disease (ALS, or "Lou Gehrig's disease) and of how his family reacts. The second means to generalize from that by relating it to how genetics, gene therapy, and other radically new treatments are challenging the accepted norms of medical research. This interplay of the particular and the universal is the approach that Weiner seemed to have mastered in his previous work.

It is a third narrative that, in my view and as Weiner almost admits, causes this account to go off course. At about the same time that he embarked on this project, the author learns that his mother is also the victim of an incurable neurological disease. As he struggles to come to terms with this devastating diagnosis, he describes how he is inextricably seduced by the efforts of Stephen Haywood's entrepreneurial brother to accelerate the discovery of a revolutionary cure for ALS and perhaps other related disorders.

The book radiates sadness from the beginning and you might want to steal yourself, as I did, by resolutely distancing yourself from its subjects. (This was a strategy that was unavailable to Weiner once he learned of his mother's illness.) Before their collision with ALS, the Haywoods were a privileged and blessed family, characterized by charm, intelligence, a prosperity that exceeded most, an excess of good taste, and apparently no notable good works. Weiner strives to convinces us that they are not just charming but also sympathetic and admirable people - "grace under pressure" is one of his professed themes -but he achieves that only for Stephen.

Tolstoy taught us that there is uniqueness in every unhappy family. The Haywood story achieves uniqueness in large part because of Stephen's older brother Jamie. At the beginning of the account, just before Stephen's diagnosis, Jamie is distinguished by two characteristics: he is remarkably tied to his brother and he has happened to have just made his way into the Biotechnology field. Trained and successful as a Mechanical Engineer, his talent and drive have propelled him into more entrepreneurial pursuits. This is 1996, and where better to be an ambitious, driven entrepreneur than in Biotech. He joins the Neurosciences Institute, with the charter to "package the think-tank's ideas and turn them into money." The scientists there believe that their research puts them on the verge of being able to "cure the uncurable." It is a time of great hubris, both scientific and economic, and Jamie has found an epicenter.

When he learns that his brother has one of those "uncurable" diseases, Jamie launches his own foundation to find the cure. Weiner traces Jamie's various battles and tries to relate these efforts to the larger story of modern neuroscience. But the author's own reactions increasingly compete for the focus of the story. He too is seeking a cure for an uncurable disease, that of his mother. His objectivity is undermined, and his ability to distinguish hype from reality is incurably compromised.

We do get fascinating and tantalizing glimpses into the science, business, and personalities of genetic therapy, but these serve only to make us wish for a more developed treatment. Weiner is a surreptitiously artful writer whose style is usually characterized by paragraphs that are compact but commanding and authoritative. He crafts many of those here, but not to the same effect as in his earlier work. In fact, this book frequently does not seem crafted at all, just avalanched from an emotional precipice. The aspects of the story beyond that of the Haywoods and Weiners are difficult to follow as scientists, researchers, and theories of neurological behavior flicker in and out of the account, and there's no index to help those of us with less than encyclopedic memories.

In the closing Acknowledgements, the author says this in thanking his father: "[h]e would much rather have kept our own story in the family, and I hope he will feel that the cause was good." This seems to me to be a measure of the both the strength and weakness of "His Brother's Keeper." It is obviously a heartfelt work that attempts great personal honesty. Yet we are left not quite sure what the cause was.

A beautiful book
"His Brother's Keeper: A Story from the Edge of Medicine" is is a beautiful book.

At age 29, just when he is finding himself, Stephen Heywood, a carpenter and house restorer, is diagnosed with ALS -- Lou Gehrig's disease. His brother Jamie, an MIT-trained engineer, turns his life upside, and adapts his engineering know-how as quickly as he can in a quixotic effort to save his brother. Corralling cowboy scientists and traditional experts along the way, he puts together a team to work on a few different ideas, including his, which is the most promising--a kind of gene therapy. This is one of the best books I have ever read.

Weiner', who won the Pulitzer Prize for the equally wonderful but very different "The Beak of the Finch," interweaves analogies and information from classic texts, from his own mother's struggle with a different neurodegenerative disease, and from intimate exposure to the Heywood family, into his narrative of the brothers' lives to create a phenomenally rich mix of philosophy, medical ethics, and up-to the minute science-- and above all, love. Weiner brings all of his incrdible intelligence and talent--along with real emotion--to bear in this unforgettable book.

A Family Up Against a Horrible Disease
Stephen Heywood was a carpenter, and a good one. His father was a director of an engineering lab, his mother a retired psychotherapist, one brother an aspiring Hollywood producer, and another brother an MIT graduate mechanical engineer. Stephen, therefore, was sort of a black sheep in a family of achievers. He had as a suitable project the restoration of a cottage in Palo Alto, where he was working in 1997. It was there that he put the key into a door, and it was stuck. He could not turn it, even though the lock was new, top-of-the-line, and previously working well. This simple problem puts into motion the events described in _His Brother's Keeper: A Story from the Edge of Medicine_ (Ecco) by Jonathan Weiner. Weiner has previously given wonderful accounts of current evaluations of the evolution of Darwin's finches and of the genetics of fruit flies, but here he has given a deeply human portrait of the effect of illness on one family. The problem is not the lock; Stephen dismantled it and it was in full working order. Then he discovered that he could turn the key if he used his other hand. The problem was within his own body.

It was Stephen's first signs of amyotrophic lateral sclerosis (ALS), often called Lou Gehrig's disease. ALS inactivates neurons which control the muscles. The muscles atrophy and eventually even those involved in breathing cannot function, so that the victim dies of suffocation. Death comes almost always within five years after the condition has been diagnosed, and most patients die within two years. Stephen's engineer brother, Jamie, had tackled many projects, many problems, and had overcome them all. Surely finding a cure for Stephen's condition was just one more problem, essentially an engineering problem. It didn't matter that he was a mechanical, not chemical or biochemical or genetic, engineer. Jamie immersed himself in ALS research, first on the Internet, of course, and then in the medical journals. He found that one factor getting the blame is the overproduction of the neurotransmitter glutamate, which kills off spinal nerves. He set up a foundation to power his efforts, and eventually a biotech company. He got contributions from his family, and his wife belly-danced to make money at benefit performances. The odds against success were overwhelming, while Stephen lost one function after another, providing the tension within the story.

It all should have turned out differently. It would be unfair to give away the specific ending of the book, but suffice it to say that Stephen at the end is heroically, calmly beating the odds in his own way, helped by a wife who is devoted to him and a family that cares for its lovable black sheep. He refuses to see himself as victim or hero, just prey to a "normal accident." He also does not mythologize Jamie's race for a cure, seeing it as a hunt for a "normal miracle." Jamie remains enthusiastic; it is clear that his own hubris in his project is only his individual partaking of the larger over-optimism of molecular medicine. The latter is obvious in the death of an eighteen-year-old in a clinical trial of gene therapy in 1999; as a result, the plans for gene therapy for Stephen had to be abandoned. Weiner himself shows that he has been disillusioned by medical hype. This is an often inspiring story of good intentions and hope, however; it isn't the fault of any of the people described herein, including the author, that hope is sometimes misplaced.

Total empowering
From start to finish it never lets go. You become so involved that to put it down is unjust. You become so involved with each person you feel you know them personelly and by the end you do. Jonathan Weiner takes you from brother's playful childhood to adult world where life is so very on the razers adge of medicine. A most read for those who care and an absolut for those who should. ... Read more

Book Description

Many vital medical techniques are based on fundamental bioelectric and biomagnetic phenomena-electrocardiographs and cardiac pacemakers are two examples. This book examines the fundamental science underlying these techniques. ... Read more

Book Description

This book is unique in that it takes a molecular first approach. It starts with DNA and moves through the genetic expression at the molecular level before turning to the more traditional Mendelian and Neomendelian transmission genetics. This book emphasizes what the reader should come to understand, not simply memorize.In addition to topics traditionally covered in genetics, this book provides cutting edge information on Bioinformatics and Proteomics, as well as a chapter on advanced topics in Molecular Genetics. ... Read more

Reviews (2)

A great book for engineers and engineering students.
I am a biochemical engineer working in my MSc. program. I have read the book last month because of PhD. friend that has recomended it to me. I was expecting something most alike to an academic paper collection, but I was very surprised when I find that the book offers more than a simple compilation of information. It supplies both the need of general and in-depth information regarding all aspects of anaerobic digestion. This is a "must have" for biochemical and environmental engineers, and for students and teachers too. It has a lot of examples and complete developed calculations that are right directed to the main theme in each chapter: no high math excercises, only right-to-the-point clear descriptive calculations. The well-designed cross reference's layout helps a lot to follow the important points through the chapters. The practical cases offer a good way to examinate how the equations and the calculations can be used in the daily field.

Thanks a lot to the author. The book is a very comprehensive example on how a book in this field has to be done.

Excellent reference for engineers and scientists
This book will change your whole perspective about anaerobic processes. I believe it is an excellent reference for people working in the field of anaerobic treatment. You will find all the essentials you need in this book. I hope you enjoy this book as much as I did. ... Read more

Book Description

One of the most common reasons so many new drug, medical device, or equipment applications are rejected each year by the FDA is the failure to properly develop and document plans and procedures. This is required of both U.S. and foreign companies wishing to market their products in the United States. The lack of well defined validation standard operating procedures may result in adverse FDA findings, recalls, and heavy financial losses. Key FDA guidelines on good manufacturing practice (GMP), good laboratory practice (GLP), and validation do not describe exactly how to develop a master validation plan, how to achieve compliance, or the standard operating procedures and documentation required. This text provides the required validation standard operating procedures and documentation necessary for achieving compliance in the pharmaceutical industry. The text and CD are designed to minimize workload and optimize time, money, and resources. A comprehensive when-and-how-to-do-it guide, Validation Standard Operating Procedures provides the needed administrative solutions and guidance for achieving compliance with FDA requirements, and for obtaining authorization to market products in the United States. The CD-ROM contains 74 template validation standard operating procedures that can be tailored to meet the regulatory compliance requirements of any pharmaceutical, diagnostic, medical device, medical equipment, and biotech product. You can edit, print, and customize these procedures to fit your needs. The book and CD work together to minimize the number of documents used and to ensure their accuracy. All critical elements and requirements of validation are covered, so you can easily implement them and avoid the stress that usually accompanies an FDA audit.Features"Provides all the information that managers need to establish functions, acceptance criteria, and validation procedures in compliance with FDA guidelines"Includes step-by-step directions for translating GMP requirements into action, based on your company's Master Validation Plan and execution protocols "Describes how to establish test functions and prevent defects in order to produce products that are fit for use"Serves as an ideal companion to Haider's Pharmaceutical Master Validation Plan ... Read more

Book Description

This book covers both basic elements and the state-of-the-art in applications of proteomics. The first section gives an introduction to the field, from differential approaches to functional proteomics, including yeast two-hybrid, mass spectrometry, mapping of post-translational modifications, and NMR spectroscopy. The second section offers a complete picture of industry studies in proteomics for human health and biotechnology applications. The final section addresses the future, looking at the most promising areas such as protein arrays and the integration of genomic and proteomic tools. ... Read more

Book Description

Biotechnology instructors require currency, sound pedagogy and a brief objective introduction to a broad range of topics and technologies. Students need an accessible and clear presentation along with hot topics and real-world examples. Susan Barnum meets all these requirements and needs in this second edition of her enormously popular text, BIOTECHNOLOGY: AN INTRODUCTION, Second Edition.Barnum offers a broad view of biotechnology, integrating historical and modern topics. She then describes the processes and methods used to manipulate living organisms or the substances and products from these organisms for medical, agricultural, and industrial purposes. Using case studies and examples, the author rounds out discussions by detailing the technology and how it is applied, including discussions on the implications of biotechnology in such areas as gene therapy, medicine, agriculture, marine biology, and forensics.More complex and difficult-to-teach topics are given special coverage, by providing outlines, bulleted lists, and tables for simplifying and clarifying topics such as immunology, construction of recombinant DNA molecules, relevant lab techniques, monoclonal antibodies, and plant transformation/regeneration. Besides the addition of color, this new edition places more information in boxes to focus on the process of science, the accomplishments of researchers in the field, and real-world examples of biotechnology. In addition, Susan Barnum extends her already excellent objective coverage of the ethical and social implications of biotechnology by focusing on the most relevant topics in a sidebar in each chapter. Commercial, economical, and medical effects of current biotechnology practices are also made clearer and more relevant for students. ... Read more

Book Description

Biotechnology, one of the fastest growing and most exciting areas of science, is a complex combination of scientific disciplines beset by jargon and buzz words. Now fully updated to incorporate the most current terminology, this second edition of Biotechnology From A to Z offers an illuminating and practical introduction to the ideas of biotechnology. Starting from ADEPT (antibody-directed enzyme prodrug therapy) and finishing with zoonosis (infection by an organism that usually infects other species), and describing artificial tissues, extremophiles, nutraceuticals, prosthetics, and xenografts among many other topics along the way, this book provides a concise and readable overview of the field. Straightforward language and concrete examples are used to unravel the jargon for the non-specialist. This book is an essential, accessible guide to the science, the technology, and the real achievements of this fascinating and controversial industry. ... Read more

Reviews (1)

Biotechnology from A to Z
Biotechnology from A to Z, 2nd edition, by W. Bains With the current explosion of interest in biotechnology and the application of the basic techniques of genetic engineering to medicine, agriculture, forensics, environment, it is becoming increasingly difficult for any one person to stay abreast of all the applications. A handbook such as Bains' is invaluable in cutting straight to the point and providing the appropriate jargon for the particular discipline. Scientists, science writers, environmental activists, everyone will find this book an invaluable reference source. My favorite few pages go from Affinity Tag, Ageing, Agrobacterium tumefaciens, AIDS, to Airlift fermentor. All the entries are explained in clear concise English, with the just the right amount of cross-entries. As is appropriate for a biotechnology book, there are frequent practical examples. There is a good index and a list of books for further reading. It's a shame OUP couldn't have kept the internet address stable. This book is a definite good buy.

Department of Molecular Biology and Genetics Bilkent University, Bilkent 06533, Ankara, Turkey ... Read more

Reviews (2)

Editor's Review
This book is written for biochemists, crystallographers, graduate students, lab technicians, undergraduates or anyone else working with proteins with the intention of crystallizing them. The first part introduces the beginner to the basic techniques, materials, and parameters that affect crystallization. Those readers with previous crystallization experience can turn directly to the chapter on dynamic light scattering as a diagnostic tool, or to the five chapters devoted to choosing a crystallization strategy. Interpretation of results is probably the area in which many have their greatest difficulty so 20 color plates have been included to assist in the identification of the phenomena found in crystallization drops. The second part of the book takes up more advanced methods such as crystallization for cryo-crystallography, seeding, the use of oils, microbatch methods, and special considerations for membrane proteins. Useful tips and recommendations have been collected in an A-Z section, again with an emphasis on practical problems and questions encountered at the lab bench. The appendices contain a list of good-to-have gizmos, suppliers and sources of crystallization materials, useful web sites, and a comprehensive listing of commercially available screens Laboratory exercises are included which can be used for teaching purposes in protein crystallization or crystallography courses. The chapters have been contributed by 18 scientists who are actively involved in the development of methodology for protein crystallization.

Great Book
Highly recommended to beginners who have interests in structural biology ... Read more

Book Description

A council of leading scientists and philosophers offers wise and provocative insights into the ethical implications of one of the most momentous developments of all-cloning.

Few avenues of scientific inquiry raise more thorny ethical questions than the cloning of human beings, a radical way to control our DNA. In August 2001, in conjunction with his decision to permit limited federal funding for stem-cell research, President George W. Bush created the President's Council on Bioethics to address the ethical ramifications of biomedical innovation. .Over the past year the Council, whose members comprise an all-star team of leading scientists, doctors, ethicists, lawyers, humanists, and theologians, has discussed and debated the pros and cons of cloning, whether in the service of producing children or as an aid to scientific research. The questions the Council members confronted do not have easy answers, and they did not seek to hide their differences behind an artificial consensus.Rather, the Council decided to allow each side to make its own best case, so that the American people can think about and debate these questions, which go to the heart of what it means to be a human being.Just as the dawn of the atomic age created ethical dilemmas for the United States, cloning presents us with similar quandaries that we are sure to wrestle with for decades to come. ... Read more

Reviews (5)

Very powerful.
I am a science major and philosophy minor and I have found this book very provocative, well written and useful.

A collection of opinions with no firm ethical foundation.
The subject of human cloning has gained considerable press recently, due mainly to claims made by various individuals in successfully producing a human clone. These claims have remained unjustified, due to the refusal of these individuals to permit their scientific verification. The successful birth of a healthy human clone would be a major achievement, both from a scientific standpoint, and from an ethical one. It would give humans yet another option of how they are to reproduce themselves, and far from demeaning or devaluing human life, would actually celebrate it. There is no question that the first human clones will be viewed as somewhat of a novelty by many, but like all other humans born as the result of advances in technology, such as in vitro fertilization, they will be accepted as another unique and valuable addition to the human species, deserving of every legal right and every measure of respect.

Having unique fingerprints does not distinguish us as individuals, only our achievements do. It is the total contributions we have made in the entire span of our lives that distinguishes us as individuals. But Leon Kass, the main author of this book, and the chairman of the President's Council on Bioethics, has chosen the fingerprint as its focal point. Indeed, in the first sentence in the forward, he states that "the fingerprint has rich biological and moral significance", and that it "signifies our unique personal identity." It is ironic perhaps that he has chosen to address the issue of human cloning by beginning with a purely physical characterization of human individuality. Why worry about how different we are from others anyway? If a handful of clones, all with the same fingerprints, make brilliant contributions to humanity, should we not celebrate this? And if a physical attribute is needed to differentiate us as individuals, then should not human clones be regarded as unique by reference to the way they came into this world, i.e. by asexual reproduction?

The main virtue of this book is that it omits the vituperation that frequently accompanies discussion of genetic engineering and human cloning. It addresses the main issues calmly, without hype and without personal attacks against those who advocate the genetic engineering of or cloning of human beings. It does however present a very narrow view of the ethical philosophy behind the technology of genetic engineering. The authors cannot seem to find a sound ethical framework in which to speak. Utilitarian considerations behind reproductive cloning for example are abandoned, and are to be replaced with a "different frame of reference". The Council Members (interesting use of capital letters here) though never articulate in detail just what this ethical "frame of reference" is, but only seek a "deeper meaning" in that act of human procreation, which in their view will then give meaning to the raising of children.

The reproductive cloning of humans has, interestingly, a certain shock value for the council members (no caps are needed). It, to them, is the "most unusual, consequential, and most morally important" of the ways of bringing children into the world. Why indeed is this so? If the council members were suddenly to find several children in the world that were brought into the world as a result of cloning, would they find these children that much different than any other children born as the result of "ordinary" reproduction? The actions taken to produce cloned children are certainly different than taken to produce "ordinary" children, but will the children themselves be any different in terms of their humanity? Cloned children will play in the sand box, get into fights with each other, face the same struggles, and require the same kind of nurturing as any other children. The moral significance of the actions taken to voluntarily produce children shrink in comparison to their value as humans.

It is perhaps ironic that the council members believe that sexual procreation gives each human being a "sense of individual identity". They inadvertently express a belief that genetic structure is primarily responsible for making humans unique as individuals. Genes and not life experiences and the accumulated wisdom obtained from these experiences are believed by the council members to have great weight in determining our uniqueness as individuals. They don't believe in total genetic determinism though, as further analysis of the book reveals, but their emphasis on the genetic makeup is actually quite surprising given their anti-cloning stance. It is usually the technophilic pro-cloning groups who over-emphasize the role of genetics. One can safely bet though that both the council members and these groups would forget their differences if they saw a lovely cloned human child in a crib, one that is deserving of all the warmth and care that should be given to any other human on this planet.

Stem cell research has complicated the cloning debate, and with the announcement last month of promising work involving pluripotent human embryonic stem cell cells derived from a cloned blastocyst, and with the reorganization of the President's Council of Bioethics to make it more anti-cloning and anti-stem cell in its beliefs, one can certainly expect much more contention in the near future. Scientists, geneticists, and genetic engineers must make sure their work and its ethical justification are not left to the sometimes myopic and unjustified opinions such as can be found in this book. The members of the Council of Bioethics do not speak for everyone, and any authority regarding scientific or ethical matters imputed to them is incorrect. Any advice they give is purely their own personal opinion, a result of their own biases and personal history. As such it does not have moral or legal binding for anyone.

A Different Perspective on Cloning and Stem Cell Research
I found this report to be invaluable in determining where some in the scientific community and many politicians and bureacrats stand on the subject of cloning and stem cell research.

If you favor such research, for whatever reason, whether it be the development of tissues for the cures of disease or for other reasons, the Human Cloning and Human Dignity report will definitely give you an idea regarding the ideology of those who composed the report. The position of many of the members is common and frequently theological in nature, with much of the discussion concerning the subject of the earliest cell divisions, before recognizable human features have developed.

The position against human cloning in the report is recognizable, honest, and thorough so someone hoping to change public opinion in favor of cloning and stem cell research can determine what they need to do to address public opinion on the subject.

I found the report very informative.

A Balanced Appraisal
This book is the result of a special inquiry ordered by US President Bush to examine these contentious issues. Late in 2001 he announced the formation of a bioethics council to weigh into the many related issues involved in the cloning debate. Chaired by bioethicist Leon Kass of the University of Chicago, a panel of experts was quickly convened, and after 6 months of research and reflection, this final report was presented to the President in July 2002.

This 350-page book presents the findings of the Council. The Council was comprised of 18 experts in science, medicine, public policy and ethics. Some were secular, some religious. Some were fully against any form of human cloning - even for research purposes - while others were much more open to therapeutic research involving embryos, whether deliberately created for that purpose, or "surplus" from assisted reproduction programs. The majority however seem quite concerned about all types of human cloning.

The report begins with an overview of the debate, including scientific, historical and ethical components. Terminology is also clearly defined. Then the pros and cons of the ethics of reproductive cloning are examined in detailed. Similarly, the ethics of therapeutic cloning, both for and against, are closely discussed.

The book concludes with public policy options and recommendations. Finally, thirteen Council members contribute personal statements on the proceedings. These include William Hurlbut, Charles Krauthammer, Gilbert Meilaender and William May. In these statements the various authors are allowed to express personal preferences, disagreements, or endorsements of the Council report. Many of these alone are worth the price of the book.

But as I mentioned, the great majority of Council members seem to have a strong ethical basis on which they make their pronouncements. Thus the report, while allowing various sides to be heard, often gives room for extensive moral reasoning and reflection.

For example, in the discussion on cloning for research, the Council acknowledges that we should not ignore the needs of the suffering, but even this must be kept in balance: "the relief of suffering, though a great good, is not the greatest good". It continues, "As highly as we value health and longer life, we know that life itself loses its value if we care only for how long we live, and not also for how we live."

On the issue of the moral status of the human embryo, again, differing points of view are expressed. But it does deserve special respect, and should not be treated as a means to another's end. It is more than a clump of cells, and it clearly is the means by which all of us began. The report recommends that all embryo research be subject to a new and thorough review and be part of a larger regulatory scheme.

Because this report is a collection of viewpoints, and an assemblage of differing options and proposals, it cannot come out with clear-cut and definite conclusions. But the overall direction and tone of the report is one of balance, prudence and caution. It realises the limitations of science and medicine, and recognises the importance of a comprehensive ethical underpinning of any discussion on the issue. It thus makes for an important contribution to the overall debate.

Save Your Money
This document is the first (and currently only) report of President Bush's 17-member Council on Bioethics. The issue is whether it is in society's best interest to continue research to develop perfectly transplant-tolerant tissues by exploiting the capability of stem cells to differentiate into cells of any tissue type. This includes liquid "tissue" such as blood and lymph cells, which hold promise for curing leukemias and lymphomas.

The members of the Council, all political appointees, split 10 to 7 against cloning for the purposes of research toward cures of disease. Not surprisingly, those members currently working as doctors or scientists tended to favor further research, including the development of new stem cell lines, as will ultimately be necessary for transplant tolerance, should research lead to new cures.

For some, the ethical problem arises because stem cells require the production of an egg, which, in principle, has the potential to become an adult human being. However, the 10 members making up the opposing majority tended to favor what some have called "slippery slope thinking." They worry about where man's efforts to play God will ultimately lead. In the report they draw an analogy between their doubts about continuing stem cell research using newly cloned cells, and drinking from a glass of wine whose rich color might conceal a spider.

The Council's Chairman states that the report fairly reflects the diverse views expressed by council members, for and against, during 6 months of inquiry, and I have no reason to quarrel with that assessment. However, I do not find the opposition of these two different world views -- which is essentially a difference between optimism and pessimism with respect to man's ability to control the worst impulses of those empowered by scientific success -- to constitute a particularly enlightening debate. To me, it evades the real question of whether the greater immorality is to deny the potential of the human life of a developing egg, or to deny the potential of a cure for a deadly disease. ... Read more

Book Description

Biotechnology is one of the major technologies of the twenty-first century. Its huge, wide-ranging, multidisciplinary activities impinge on everyone's lives in the form of recombinant DNA techniques, cloning and genetics, the application of microbiology to the production of household goods, and antibiotics.It continues to revolutionize treatments of many diseases and is used to provide clean technologies and deal with environmental problems. Basic Biotechnology is a mainstream account of the current state of biotechnology, written to provide the reader with insight, inspiration, and instruction into the skills and arts of the subject. The volume explains the fundamental aspects that underpin all biotechnology and provides examples of how these principles are put into operation, from starting substrate to final product. The book is essential reading for all students and teachers of biotechnology and applied microbiology and for researchers in the many biotechnology industries. ... Read more

Reviews (1)

Excelent introductory textbook
I found this to be an excellent textbook for an introductory course in Biotech.
I will strongly recomended it: it is general, it is easy to follow, it is updated, and it has something very special... the economic perspective, the practical point of view. ... Read more

Book Description

Here, authors from academia and industry provide an exciting overview of current production technologies and the fascinating possibilities for future applications. Topics include chloroplast-derived antibodies, biopharmaceuticals and edible vaccines, production of antibodies in plants and plant cell suspension cultures, production of spider silk proteins in plants, and glycosylation of plant produced proteins. The whole is rounded off by chapters on the demands and expectations made on molecular farming by pharmaceutical corporations and the choice of crop species in improving recombinant protein levels.
Of interest to biotechnologists, gene technologists, molecular biologists and protein biochemists in university as well as the biotechnological and pharmaceutical industries. ... Read more