We Can Sleep Later

American Scientist

This collection opens a unique window into the early days of molecular biology and the life of an extremely private scientist to whom personal satisfaction with an experiment well done was more important than acclaim. The reader is left with a feeling of regret that Hershey and his brand of methodical, concise science are no longer with us.

Nature Cell Biology

The title of the book seems scarcely appropriate for a man who famously napped twice a day (in a cycle that was convenient for phage genetics, but less so for human interaction), but reflects a final important role for Hershey, as a stringent and constructive editor of scientific papers. He was one of the begetters of the marvelous 1971 Cold Spring Harbor monograph The Bacteriophage Lambda, and 'we can sleep later' was his exhortation to lagging writers to get their manuscripts for this book in on time. That volume, and the first in the series, The Lactose Operon, set the tone for the long and important series of Cold Spring Harbor monographs, which have had profound influence in the world of molecular biology. It is particularly fitting that Cold Spring Harbor should honour the memory of Hershey in this way.

Booknews

Molecular biologist Alfred Hershey (1908-1997) is best known for demonstrating that DNA is the genetic component of phages. Here, a number of other molecular biologists present 12 essays and reminiscences of Hershey's life and work. Also included are six scientific articles by Hershey on such topics as the idiosyncracies of genetic structure, genes and hereditary characteristics, and independent functions of viral protein and nucleic acid in the growth of bacteriophage. Annotation c. Book News, Inc., Portland, OR (booknews.com)