The Chemistry of Life: Eight Lectures on the History of Biochemistry

by Joseph Needham (Editor)

Overview

This assembly of lectures, each on a major aspect of the development of biochemistry, should appeal to anyone with an interest in the history of science and the nature of living things. Seven of the eight lectures are by eminent biochemists and describe the development of their own subject from the inside; the eighth is a more general one by a professional historian of science. They contain a good deal of information not readily available elsewhere and do not require a special knowledge of biochemistry. The lectures were originally given as a series, over a period of several years, under the auspices of the department of the History and Philosophy of Science in the University of Cambridge.

Product Details

ISBN-13:	9780521088855
Publisher:	Cambridge University Press
Publication date:	10/30/2008
Edition description:	Reprint
Pages:	268
Product dimensions:	5.50(w) x 8.40(h) x 0.70(d)

Table of Contents

1. The growth of our knowledge of photosynthesis Robert Hill; 2. The history of enzymes and of biological oxidations Malcolm Dixon; 3. The development of microbiology E. F. Gale; 4. Some biochemical signposts in the progress of neurology Kendal Dixon; 5. The evolution of ideas about animal hormones F. G. Young; 6. The discovery of vitamins Leslie J. Harris; 7. The historical foundations of modern biochemistry Mikuláš Teich; 8. Some lone pioneers of biochemistry in the nineteenth century Sir Rudolph Peters.