Customer Reviews

The RNA World, Third Edition (Cold Spring Harbor Monograph Series)

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The title refers to the hypothesis that before there was DNA there was RNA, inhabiting a world in which not only basic synthesis but also the storing of genetic information was the prerogative of RNA. But the book is much more than this: it is a primer on the world of RNA in its many forms. Each chapter is an authoritative essay on a particular aspect of RNA, from riboswitches to the dynamics of RNA folding. Anyone who wants to access current knowledge about how cells function at a biochemical level should read this book; because of the breadth of subject-matter and the caliber of the contributors, even a specialist is likely to find something new and stimulating.

Too often books of this type are badly written and crammed with unexplained jargon; here the text is a masterpiece of clarity and technical terms are carefully introduced and elucidated. A non-specialist can easily pick up this book and, several hours later, emerge with a good conceptual framework in mind.

The only caveat is that today the field of RNA research is moving so quickly that any hardcopy text will quickly fall out of date. The new work on siRNA, for example, is progressing with such speed that the reader will want to supplement this text with some online research of their own in order to come right up-to-date.

Although it has been a lot of years since RNA was discovered, and even many years since the breakthrough discoveries by Altman and Cech of RNA Catalytic activity, the new discoveries keep coming, and indeed at a faster and increasing rate. I don't know if it has been the intent of this book to be a sort of master journal of the most significant happening in the area, but it seems to have turned out so.

This is the third edition of 'The RNA World' and it has a series of 25 papers produced by what might be called a 'Who's Who' and a 'What's What' of RNA research. The are broken down by categories with the following names:

The Origins of RNA and RNA at the Origin

Building a Functional RNA

Exiting the Ancient RNA World - Synthetases and Ribosomes

Richness of RNA Roles in a Modern RNA World

RNA Continues to Triumph Over DNA

Emerging Tools.

This is a book that any researcher, any laboratory, any organization doing RNA work simply has to have.