Word: molecular
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...scientists are portrayed with an astonishing diversity of styles; at different times Van Loon pictures Francis Crick and James Watson, discoverers of the double helix structure of DNA, as Bat. In addition, the comic book format in the only one in which the arcane and often ridiculous jargon of molecular biology makes sense...
...authors of two new books on genes and DNA (short for deoxyribonucleic acid, the molecule which stores genetic information in the cell) have acted in the educational spirit of Al Vellucci. Both The Gene Age and DNA for Beginners are clearly written expositions which try to demystify molecular genetics for the layman; both, incidentally, include serious discussions of the Cambridge controversy over whether recombinant DNA research should be permitted...
...Beginners is simply the best introduction to genetics you can buy. Sylvester and Klotz write in The Gene Age that molecular biologists "stand out among scientists as intensely visual, as imaginative rather than analytic." DNA for Beginners puts this visual imagination into pictures. And what pictures they are! Borin Van Loon's clever and exhaustive illustrations should be the required text for anyone who wants to design educational graphics...
...Gene Age benefits from an insider's understanding of the industry. Lynn Klotz is an executive of Bio Technics International, a genetic engineering firm located in North Cambridge. (Klotz was Assistant Professor of Biochemistry and Molecular Biology at Harvard when recombinant DNA research first began.) His knowledge brings some surprising insights: for example, the commercial production of a drug can often be speeded up if scientists patent the manufacturing process. The sale of penicillin, by contrast, was held back 15 years because its discoverer, Sir Alexander Fleming, had deemed it ignoble to patent the process...
...reads like a scrapbook of competent but unexceptional magazine articles. Sylvester and Klotz write clearly and chattily, but they lack a unifying theme. And their sections on the science of genetic engineering suffer from dull graphics poorly integrated with the text. Even the most sparkling writing could never explain molecular genetics without a good set of pictures; DNA for Beginners is thus far better for anyone interested in genetics out of pure curiosity...