BIOCHEMICAL EDUCATION
3 59
Organic C h e m i s t r y b y N.L. Allinger, M.P. Cava,
D.C. De J o n g h , C.R. J o h n s o n , N.A. L e b e l a n d
C.S. Stevens, W o r t h P u b l i c a t i o n s Inc., 1971,
pp. x x + 1007, £ 6 . 5 0 .
I n t r o d u c t i o n t o Organic a n d B i o c h e m i s t r y b y
L o r e n L. Braun. E.E. Merrill Publishing Co., C o l u m b u s ,
O h i o , 1972, pp. vi + 298, £ 2 . 5 0 . P a p e r b a c k .
The first of these books is a large and relatively comprehensive
textbook designed primarily for a year long course in U.S. univer-
sities. It consists essentially of three parts: (1) The structures of
organic molecules (Ch. 1-13), (2) the reactions these structures
undergo (Ch. 14-23), and (3) the determination of structure,
and the synthesis of more complicated molecules, especially the
chemistry of natural products (Ch. 24-34). There is also a
chapter (Ch. 35) on industrial organic chemistry. Short exercises,
to emphasise particular points, are interspersed throughout the
text and there are also longer problems at the ends of chapters:
solutions to most of these are provided at the back of the book.
The authors, in their preface, state that it has been their aim
to produce a textbook rather than an encyclopaedia, and in this
they have been largely successful: the book has clearly profited
greatly from the fact that drafts have been tried out on students
at three different U.S. universities. This testing has apparently
ironed out some of the potential differences of level and treat-
ment that might otherwise have been expected to result, with no
The role of Biochemistry in undergraduate
curricula.
J.W. Porteous. (Continued from page 43.)
3. The Robbins report: Higher Education. Cmnd. 2154, HMSO,
London, 1963.
4. The Plowden report: Children and the Primary Schools.
Vol. 1 & 2. HMSO, London, 1967.
5. A framework of Government research and development (A
Green Paper including reports by Lord Rothschild and by a
Working Group of the Council on Scientific Policy under
Professor Sir Frederick Dainton). Cmnd. 4814, HMSO,
London, 1972.
6. The James report: Teacher education and training. HMSO,
London, 1972.
7. See: Nature, 1972. 239. 126.
8. See: Nature, 1972. 235. 243.
Nature, 1972. 238. 242 & 305.
9. Science, Growth & Society: a report of the Secretary-General's
ad hoc Group on New Concepts of Science Policy. OECD,
Paris, 1971.
10. Dainton, F.S. The next generation of scientists and technol-
ogists. Heriott-Watt University, Editburgh, 1968.
11. Fischer, R.B. Science, Man and Society, W,B. Saunders
Company, Philadelphia, 1971.
12. See, for example, Nature, 1972, 237, 366.
13. Science Research Council/Social Sciuces Research Council
report: Broader Education for Graduates. London, 1972.
Summer 1973 Vol. 1 No.
less t~an six different authors writing about those areas of the
subject in which they are primarily interested.
The book is imaginative in plan, and well-written; the printing
is clear and neat,, but the layout is not perhaps quite as good as
modern texts of U.S. origin have now come to make us expect
almost as a matter of course.
The second book is a shorter and more elementary work
intended for a course lasting only one semester or even one
quarter. The author describes it as having been written con-
currently with his Essentials of Organic and Biochemistry, the
present text containing exactly the same treatment of organic
chemistry as the Essentials but having a shortened, and simplified
biochemical section. The book does not attempt any fundamental
integration of organic and biochemistry but comprises eleven
chapters (194 pp.) of basic organic chemistry, a bridging chapter
on amines, amino-acids and proteins (23 pp.) then essentially
biochemical chapters on enzymes, biochemical energy, carbo-
hydrates, lipids, metabolism of proteins, and, finally, nucleic
acids (68 pp. in all). The choice of material is reasonable enough
given the highly restricted space available, but this restriction
does mean that it is usually only possible to provide brief notes
on a topic rather than any satisfying explanation: the biochemical
section suffers particularly in this respect.
In short, this is a brave try at something that is virtually
impossible within this compass. It is, indeed, rather difficult to
see what group of students are going to feel any need for this
book.
Peter Sykes
Cambridge, England
ACKNOWLEDGEMENTS
I am grateful to Professor G.M. Burnett and to Professor J. Nisbet
for drawing my attention to references (9), (10) and (13) listed
above.
I am also grateful to Professor S.E. Hunt and E. Braun of the
University of Aston in Birmingham who very kindly provided me
with a synopsis of the curriculum referred to in this article before
it was generally available.
ADDENDUM
This article was written in October 1972. Nature (1973. 242.
375 - 390) carried a series of nine articles under the general
heading Careers for Scientists; several of these articles deal with
matters alluded to in the present essay.
Since the present article was written the author has learned
that the Department of Liberal Studies in Science of the Faculty
of Science in the University of Manchester (Professor F.R. Jevons)
offers a degree course embracing integrated studies in the
physical sciences and in liberal arts; and that a study of life
sciences as an alternative to the study of physical sciences will
be available in the future. These courses would seem to go a
long way towards meeting the aims of the curriculum proposed
in the present article.
Furthermore, it seems that the Nuffield Foundation is
sponsoring a scheme, in which eight Universities and o n ~
Polytechnic are participating, "to keep science courses in closer
touch with society" (Guardian, London, March 15, 1973). It
will be interesting to watch the progress of this scheme; and, in
particular, to see to what extent biochemistry makes a contri-
bution to the laudable objectives of the scheme.