Vital Forces

* Vividly describes dramatic scientific discoveries, personalities, feuds and rivalries
* Answers a general readers quest to understand the nature of life, and the relevance of biochemistry/molecular biology to modern medicine, industry and agriculture

Audience: Molecular biologists, protein chemists, biochemists, chemists, and physicists.

Vital Forces tells the history of the 'biochemical revolution', a 200-year quest to unravel the chemical secrets of the living cell. A period of unprecedentedly rapid advance in human knowledge the biochemical revolution profoundly affected our view of the nature of life, and laid the foundations of medicine and biotechnology.
The story is told in a clear, engaging and absorbing manner. This delightful work relates the fascinating and staggering advances in concepts and theories over the last 200 years, and introduces the major figures of the times.
Vital Forces describes the discovery of the molecular basis of life through the life stories of the scientists involved, including such towering figures as Louis Pasteur, Gregor Mendel, Linus Pauling, and Francis Crick. Combining science and biography into a seamless chronological narrative, the author brings to life the successes and failures, the collaborations and feuds, the failed theories and brilliant insights that produced the molecular revolution in biology.

Eugene A. Davidson

The casual reader might believe that a history of science book is likely to be very dull reading. This is not the case for this book wherein the author traces the evolution of biochemical thinking from the early eighteenth century (Lavoisier) to our present day understanding of the genetic code and the nature of heredity. The author's purpose is to provide a history of biochemistry from the early 18th Century though the present day. Anyone interested in modern biology would be interested in this book. The flow of ideas takes center stage and, for those with any interest in science, the author displays with elegance and skill the development of many of the key ideas that currently dominate biological research. This should be required reading for students in this area and can surely be of value to even the most experienced investigator. Well documented with many personal vignettes, this is an engaging and intelligent book. The author is to be commended for capturing the sense of intellectual development as well as the excitement of discovery.

Graeme Hunter studied biochemistry at the University of Glasgow, graduating with the degree of Ph.D. in 1980. He carried out post-doctoral research at Stanford University and the University of Toronto. In 1988, Dr. Hunter became an Assistant Professor in the Department of Oral Biology at the University of Alberta. Since 1991, he has held the position of Associate Professor in the Faculty of Medicine & Dentistry at the University of Western Ontario.Dr. Hunter's current research interests are in the areas of biomineralizatin and the history and philosophy of biology.