Customer Reviews

For the Love of Enzymes: The Odyssey of a Biochemist

5 star:		(3)
4 star:		(1)
3 star:		(0)
2 star:		(0)
1 star:		(0)

 

 

"For the love of enzymes" is an informative and interesting personal account of a great biochemist. I bought my own copy years ago, and this one I got as a gift for a recent graduate.

I read this book when I was in graduate school working in a lab studying yeast replication proteins. Before the genes were cloned to allow overexpression of our proteins we had to purify the endogenous versions from large cultures. Reading this book really made me appreciate the enormous effort that went into designing a purification protocol that worked. Is it glamorous? No. Do you get really cold standing in the cold room? Of course. If you have ever purified proteins and wondered how long it took to develop the protocol, this book will give you an idea (and make you appreciate how good you have it).

The importance of enzymes was first impressed on me years ago (1981) by Dr. William Donald Kelley through his explanation and use of pancreatic enzymes in his cancer treatment protocol One Answer To Cancer an Ecological Approach To TH. (More recent accounts of Dr. Kelley's protocol are presented in Cancer: Curing the Incurable Without Surgery, Chemotherapy, or Radiation and One Man Alone: An Investigation of Nutrition, Cancer, and William Donald Kelley) Around 1998 I came across and read the classic "Enzyme Nutrition" by Dr. Edward Howell Enzyme Nutrition which imparted to me the vital importance of enzymes to the essence of life. As a consequence, I always strive to eat raw foods as much as possible and to take digestive enzymes regularly based on these teachings.

However, I have always been intrigued by the mystery of when and how life is born (erupts) from inanimate matter and the hints were that enzymes played a key role in that evolutionary step. In my recent book searches I came across Arthur Kornberg's "For the Love of Enzymes" and bought it on the basis of the recommendations with the hope that it might shed some light on the process of the eruption of life.

I was captivated by the book and could not put it down until finished. It clearly defined what an enzyme was in chemical terms. It certainly confirmed to me that life would not exist were it not for enzymes. Although the explicit details of the step by step process of the evolution of first life still remains to be unveiled (to my present knowledge), there remains no doubt in my mind that enzymes are the vital "spark" which makes and keeps the "engine" of life going. This book has filled many gaps in my pseudo-layman's knowledge of life, biology, and health. In addition, it gives the insight into the form, creation and manipulation of DNA for which enzymes are essential, and the resultant techniques of genetic engineering. It also presents an inspiring account of the pursuit of science from one very prominent person's (Nobel recipient's) perspective. I highly recommend this book to any layman interested in the origin of life, biology, and health - and certainly any aspiring health practitioner or student in the health field or the broad field of biology, chemistry, and biochemistry. It was mind-expanding and mind-blowing to me! Enjoy!

This is a nice, well-written scientific autobiography.
It has some quite entertaining anecdotes, some social message, and a lot biology from the forefront of enzyme-research that should not be forgotten.
It also has a couple of verbatim repetitions withing the book, which are a bit odd.

On the other hand, it has managed to convince me of something that I have already suspected - that purifying and studying enzymes must be one of the most boring lines of research on the face of this planet. Kronberg makes a very valiant effort trying to show the opposite, and it's obvious that he loves his research with passion, something that I truly admire.
I recommend this book to anyone who is thinking of entering enzymology - I believe it will give them a reasonably realistic estimate on whether they will like the work or not (in my case the answer was no, but it's personal taste).