ICP SELECTED PAPERS – serie

This book compiles a collection of original scientific articles written by Professor Sir Alan Fersht over 40 years of his scientific career. A long-standing icon in the fields of enzymology, protein folding, and protein engineering, Sir Alan Fersht is also one of the world's greatest protein chemists, whose work has been extensively recognized by countless international awards in both chemistry and molecular biology. He has produced a number of classic papers that are cited regularly because of the originality of his work and his insightful analysis. The study of his work on the fusion of physical chemistry and molecular biology provides a course on how to approach the analysis of complex systems in a simple logical manner. His papers are models of clarity, benefitting students of protein chemistry in their understanding of the subject.The beginning of Sir Alan Fersht's career coincided with the birth of modern protein science based on structural biology, which started in earnest momentum in the 1960s. He worked in the then Mecca of molecular biology, the MRC Laboratory of Molecular Biology, and was one of the first protein chemists to exploit the new area of structural biology. The papers are interlaced with personal comments on how each article was important in his career and how he was influenced by the galaxy of legendary scientists in the MRC.

This book compiles a wonderful collection of original scientific articles from a group of outstanding scientists from around the world who worked or have been affiliated with the Nobel Laureate Professor William N Lipscomb, Jr. throughout his scientific career. Lipscomb is a long-standing icon in the fields of structural chemistry and structural biology. One particularly interesting feature of this book is that accompanying each article is a commentary from each contributor, and a brief biography of them. Among the contributors are Nobel Laureates Roald Hoffmann, AdaYonath, and Thomas A Steitz. In addition, Lipscomb's son, James Lipscomb, comments on Lipscomb's life and science from a very unique perspective.These very personal anecdotes from a group of remarkable scientists are especially enlightening for young scientists in learning how to conduct science in general and on how a youth may grow into a great scientist. This book will appeal to young students worldwide, and will serve to encourage some of the brightest minds to enter and excel in science.

This is a scientific and philosophical autobiography written around a collection of Denis Noble's most significant papers. It traces a remarkable journey from naïve reductionism to a rigorous systems approach to living systems. It is rigorous because Denis Noble was one of the first biologists to construct computer models of cells and organs of the body. His theoretical work is entirely mathematically based, with no room for ambiguity. Far from the denigration of the systems approach as holistic ‘hand-waving’, his work is now regarded by pharmaceutical companies and regulators as the gold standard of modelling in the development of new medication.Systems Biology is an idea in search of a definition. This book explains why this is true: it is an approach rather than a subject. Denis Noble's work is one of the clearest examples of the systems approach in practice since it reveals the nature of some of the forms of downward causation in multilevel analysis. The story will delight readers who like to see how scientific controversy is resolved, since many of the developments described in each chapter were highly controversial when they occurred.