The Living Cell

Cell biology, since the advent of the electron microscope and sophisticated techniques of biochemical analysis and synthesis, has advanced in giant steps that find even experts in the field hard pressed to pace. With the voluminous literature of the discipline, the interested layman or scientist of a different field can easily get lost on the side-roads, losing sight of the general direction. This collection of 24 articles from Scientific American, including nine from the special September 1961 issue on the living cell, attempts to summarize the salient features of our present knowledge of cell structure and function. Each article is written by an expert in the field with the expressed intent of presenting a coherent, unified and non-intricate overview of his topic. In the effort to present the most recent theories, the authors do sometimes give the impression that these theories are thoroughly grounded in experimental fact, whereas recent experiments have already cast doubt on a few of these theories. If the reader realizes this possibility, however, it is unlikely that he will be led astray. Credit for a fine, but neither inspired nor difficult, job of selecting the articles, arranging them in logical order, and preparing short introductions to each of six sections must go to the editor, Donald Kennedy, Professor of Biology at Stanford University. The collection appears to have fulfilled its purpose admirably and should provide stimulating reading for those who would like a short review of modern developments in the study of the cell. RICHARD P. MILLS