86 BIOCHEMICAL EDUCATION October 1973 Vol. 1 No. 4

pictures and diagrams are well chosen, detailed and helpful. In many diagrams (of reaction sequences, etc.) the student will be aided by concise annotations bringing his attention to the important feature of the structure or reaction being described.

Following ‘adequate chapters on the chemistry of amino acids, proteins and enzymes, nucleic acids, carbohydrates and lipids, there are sections on the organisation of living matter and on bioenergetics. This takes us as far as the middle of the book, the second half of which is largely devoted to metabolism. The approach here is to give a short introduction, a brief experi- mental history, an overall view of the pathway being discussed, and then its individual reactions. Finally the role of the pathway is considered. The student is thus very gently introduced to

’ complex pathways (the book addresses itself directly to the student: “...... do not be concerned if you feel somewhat confused: this is a common intitial reaction . . . ...“). and there is much emphasis on the overall function of pathways. Learning pathways step by step by rote is vigorously discouraged.

At the end of each chapter is a summary and a list of lo-15 references to articles in, for example, Scientific American, Essays in Biochemistry, or Annual Reviews. There are also about a dozen questions for the student to answer. The student referred to is, incidentally, the American student, and English students may be variously mystified, amused, or annoyed by such expressions as “to be miffed by”, and “is predicated on”. More offensive is the frequent and redundant use of the word rather. On p. 80, albumins are rather soluble in water, and on p. 27 1 the magnitude of an energy barrier is rather considerable.

It is curious to find no mention of the dansyl technique in the determination of protein structure, or of the chemiosmotic theory in the section on oxidative phosphorylation. This particular reviewer is particularly distressed to find the well-known copper- protein haemocyanin (of which there is a nice electronmicrograph on p. 29) described as an iron-containing protein. However these petty annoyances do not detract from the fact that this is a sound and well organ&d, if perhaps a trifle wordy, book. The price of the softcover edition should make it an attractive proposition for many students of biochmistry.

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E.J. Wood

Biological Macromolecules; Enzymes (Pp. 84) & 1.80.

Cell Energetics; Metabolic Pathways (Pp. 84) .2 1.60.

Regulation of Cell Processes (Pp. 48) &l.lO.

Published by the Open University Press, P.O. Box 8 1, Bletchley, Buck, England. May be purchased from booksellers or from the Director of Marketing at the same address. A4 size, paperback, 1972.

These texts make up the correspondence element of an Open University Second Year Level Course in Biochemistry but may be purchased by anyone and can be used quite independently of other elements (programmes on television, essay work, etc.) in the Open University course. The texts were drawn up by the course team and are mentioned by Steven R.P. Rose in his article on biochemistry and the Open University (Biochemicd Educution 1973,l. 40-l). They are linked to Loewry and Siekevitz’ well-known textbook on CellStructure and Function and should be useful to students for self-instruction or revision purposes as the text is clear and the style is a little more friendly and personally-orientated than in conventional books (e.g. “Do not worry about the S-shaped curve obtained when plotting the velocity . . . ...“). Valuable features are the self-assessment tests

and problems together with the_answers. The questions often involve selecting the most appropriate interpretation of real or hypothetical experimental data and the answers give the reasons why the choice is right or wrong. Overworked teachers of bio- chemistry may find some useful ready-made material here for use in seminars. Connoisseurs of metabolic maps will find in the second volume a black-and-white diagram of glycolysis plus tricarboxylic acid cycle upon which can be superimposed three transparent sheets printed in three different colours with additional information such as points of involvement of ADP/ ATP hydrogen acceptors, etc.

The Open University biochemistry course cannot hope to cover the whole subject in the time available so a small number of main themes have been selected which are of importance in contemporary biochemistry - the current concepts of energy, control and structure-and-function. We suspect that many students will find this narrower approach in depth to be more stimulating than a more conventional short course which, with the same time available, must necessarily be more superficial.

B.A. Kilby

Education of Teachers for Integrated Science

A Report on a conference held in the University of Maryland, U.S.A., in April 1973. Pp. 59, paperback. May be obtained from the Centre for Educational Research Overseas, Tavistock House, South Tavistock Square, London, WClH 9LG, for 50~ or $1.25.

This booklet contains abstracts of the plenary sessions and summaries of the discussions of the eight working groups, together with some background material about the interest of ICSU (International Council of Scientific Unions) and UNESCO in integrated science. A book based on the proceedings of this conference including fuller versions of the main addresses, extended reports of the working groups and an updated bibliography will be published in the UNESCO “New Trends in Integrated Science Teaching” series in the Spring of 1974 and may then be obtained from UNESCO or through booksellers.

UNESCO is developing an interest in integrated science teaching owing to its concern with developing countries where it realises that very few students go on to higher education and that their knowledge of science has to be gained in elementary schools where teachers have not specialized in different branches of science and indeed, where even in high schools, economic reasons may prevent employment of both a physics and a chemistry teacher. The Maryland conference concentrated upon the problems of educating suitable teachers for integrated science and sought answers to questions such as

“How should new teachers be prepared to teach a general, combined, unified integrated science course? How can existing teachers be retrained to take account of new schemes in integrated science? What role should inspectors, advisors, and supervisors play? What contributions can science teachers’ associations make both nationally and internationally? What new techniques, materials and methods are available to assist teachers of integrated science? How can science teaching centres or curriculum development units contribute most effectively to dissemination of information, to generation of new ideas and to education or retraining of teachers of integrated science? How can new programs for integrated science teacher education be evaluated? What are the competencies ar characteristics of the teacher of integrated science? Can a specialist, such as a Ph.D. holder, be reoriented to become a generalist? And, perhaps most important of all, how does this fit into the whole educational program? Has integrated science teaching anything significant to contribute to social aspects? If so, how can we prepare teachers accordingly? What are the relationships between the education