Contents Notes |
Section 1. Physico-chemical and organic aspects of biochemistry. v. 1-4.--section 2. Chemistry of biological compounds. v. 5-11.--section 3. Biochemical reaction mechanisms. v. 12-16.--section 4. Metabolism. v. 17-21.--section 5. Chemical biology. v. 22-29.--section 6,A. Selected topics in the history of biochemistry. v. 30-34 and v. 39.--section 6,B. Stories of success ; Personal recollections I-XI. v. 35-38 and v. 40-46.--General index. "This volume is in two parts, the first dealing with Proto-Biochemistry, i.e. with the theories forged by primitive mentality to account for the steps occurring, for instance, between food and matter-of-life, for assimilation, for decomposition and repair. Such discursive systems were derived in Greek, Arabic, Indian and Chinese culture areas. The first part retraces the succession of discourses on matter-of-life and forces-of-life which were imagined before he Chemical Revolution marked the beginning of the investigation of the molecular aspects of life and of the evolution of a documented reduction to molecular aspects, the landmarks of which are retraced in Part II, entitled 'From Proto-Biochemistry to Biochemistry'. This section deals successively with the metabolic theories of Lavoisier and of his followers, the introduction of the concept of the cell as a unit of metabolism, the rise and fall of Liebig's theories, the intracellular location of metabolic changes, the emergence of physiological chemistry, the introduction of the concept of indirect nutrition and the end of the concept of direct assimilation. It also covers the rise of bioenergetics, the autonomization of organic chemistry, the enzymatic theory of metabolism, the interlude of biocoloidology, the recognition of the proteins as truly-defined macromolecules and the penetration of biochemistry into the cell. Part III of the History will be devoted to the unravelling of the sources of free energy in organisms, and the Part IV to the history of biosynthesis, while the development of our knowledge of the molecular basis of biological concepts and of molecular biology will be retraced in Part V."- Publisher. |