Arthur Kornberg – författare

In 1645 the Japanese samurai Musashi Miamoto wrote A Book of Five Rings, which described the attitudes necessary for individual success. Though he was a swordsman, his book was not limited to combat but addressed the much broader question of how to achieve excellence in life through study, discipline, and planning. It is still avidly read in Japan today. Arthur Kornberg’s book is a modern-day Book of Five Rings that replaces the medium of swordsmanship with that of biochemistry, particularly enzymology. As Kornberg describes his successive research problems, the challenges they presented, and the ultimate accomplishments that resulted, he provides us with a primer in the strategies needed to do scientific work of great significance. Moreover, these strategies are played out in the context of solving some of the great biochemical problems of the twentieth century.The ability to manipulate and alter DNA fired a revolution that forever changed the nature of biology. Arthur Kornberg is a primary architect of that revolution, arguably one of the two or three most important biologists of this time. Prior to Kornberg, genetic information and later DNA were imbued by biologists with an almost vitalistic aura. Kornberg demonstrated that DNA is a molecule synthesized by enzymes, like all other chemical constituents of the cell. More important, he trained a school of scientists who focused on and discovered many of the enzymatic activities that act on DNA. It is these enzymes in particular that allow modern “genetic engineering.”For the Love of Enzymes does not describe a single lucky or hard-won accomplishment. Rather, it is the story of thirty years of decisive campaigns, nearly all of which led to insights of major significance. In relating his story, Kornberg never avoids the difficult question of “why”: why he felt classical nutritional studies had reached a plateau, why he turned to enzymology as a discipline in which the important answers would be found, and why he believes the study of enzymes will grow ever more important as we face the new scientific frontier of brain function.This book will challenge students of biology and chemistry at all levels who want to do important work rather than simply follow popular trends. It will also delight and inform readers who wish to understand how “real” science is done, and to learn of the values that guide one of our greatest researchers.

Más del 90% de la biodiversidad del planeta Tierra son microorganismos. Por otra parte, la idea que tiene la gente de los microbios no puede ser más negativa: son unos seres arteros, sigilosos y nocivos que aprovechan cualquier ocasión para ponernos enfermos, y que, incluso, pueden causarnos la muerte. Pero los microbios, también realizan el reciclado de los elementos químicos, producen el oxígeno que respiramos, nos permiten digerir los alimentos y nos defienden de muchas enfermedades.Los microorganismos aportan a la biosfera muchos más beneficios que inconvenientes. Para empezar a entender, de una manera amable, qué son y qué hacen los microbios, nada mejor que recitar a o con nuestros niños y niñas los versos de estos Cuentos de microbios. Las historias incluyen rimas y poemas inventados, así como pinceladas teóricas de cada uno de los microorganismos protagonistas: una habla sobre Helicobacter pylori, la anciana e importante bacteria que habita en el estómago; otra lo hace sobre el apetito voraz del Myxobacterium Xanthus ?y buena parte de ellas acaban con una recomendación, a modo de moraleja, dirigida a los niños y a sus padres, sobre hábitos de higiene y salud.El libro ha sido ilustrado por Adam Alaniz, cuyas espléndidas acuarelas han sido capaces de resumir conceptos e ideas que en ocasiones resultan complicados de explicar. También contiene micrografías de electrones y un glosario completo para el lector que quiera profundizar más en el fascinante mundo de la microbiología. La versión española del libro ha sido obra de Ricard Guerrero, presidente de la Sociedad Española de Microbiología y de Mercè Piqueras, Presidenta de la Asociación Catalana de Comunicación Científica.