A Skeptical Biochemist

by Joseph S. Fruton

Overview

An eminent pioneer of modern protein chemistry looks back on six decades in biochemical research and education to advance stimulating thoughts about science—how it is practiced, how it is explained, and how its history is written. Taking the title of his book from Robert Boyle’s classic, The Sceptical Chymist (1661), and Joseph Needham’s The Sceptical Biologist (1929), Joseph Fruton brings his own skeptical vision to bear on how chemistry and biology interact to describe living systems.

Scientists, philosophers, historians, and sociologists will seize upon the questions Fruton raises: What is the nature of the tension between the chemical and the biological sciences? What are the roots and future direction of molecular biology? What is the proper place of expert scientists in the historiography of science? How does the “scientific method” really work in practice? These and many other topics are fair game for this author’s wise critiques. In a stimulating final chapter, Fruton analyzes the evolution of key terms and symbols—the conceptual underpinnings used in the biochemical literature.

Product Details

ISBN-13:	9780674810778
Publisher:	Harvard University Press
Publication date:	05/01/1992
Edition description:	New Edition
Pages:	342
Product dimensions:	6.12(w) x 9.25(h) x 1.10(d)

About the Author

Joseph S. Fruton is Eugene Higgins Professor of Biochemistry, Emeritus, at Yale University and a distinguished scholar whose writings on the field have been widely praised.

Table of Contents

Preface

1. Biochemistry and Skepticism

2. Perspectives on the "Scientific Method"

The Views of Peter Medawar

Claude Bernard and his Médecine Expérimentale

Justus von Liebig on Francis Bacon

On Craftsmanship

On Hypotheses in the Biochemical Sciences

Sanger and Insulin: A Case History

The Perils of the Search for Simplicity

3. The Interplay of Biology and Chemistry

The Nineteenth-Century Debates

The Emergence of Biochemistry

Nineteenth-Century Cytology, Embryology, and

Microbiology

Twentieth-Century Embryology versus Genetics

The Emergence of Biochemical Genetics

A "Sack Full of Enzymes"?

On Biomolecular Structure

Jacques Monod and "Allostery"

On "Energy-Rich Phosphate Bonds"

The Dynamics of Biochemical Processes

On Biochemical Function and Purpose

On Specificity and Individuality

Evolutionary Theory and the "Unity of Biology"

4.Approaches to the History of the Biochemical

Sciences

On Historians of Chemistry

On Historians of the Biochemical Sciences

On Scientific Disciplines

On the "Origins of Molecular Biology"

On Scientific Biography and Autobiography

5. Reflections on the Biochemical Literature

"The Words of the Tribe" Is the Scientific Paper a Fraud?

Bibliography

Index of Personal Names

Index of Subjects

Editorial Reviews

Enlightening and provocative—and may provoke rather sharp disagreement in certain quarters! A valuable contribution to the continuing dialogue among scientists, historians, philosophers, and other inquirers.

John T. Edsall

Enlightening and provocative—and may provoke rather sharp disagreement in certain quarters! A valuable contribution to the continuing dialogue among scientists, historians, philosophers, and other inquirers.
— John T. Edsall

Harvard University

Enlightening and provocative--and may provoke rather sharp disagreement in certain quarters! A valuable contribution to the continuing dialogue among scientists, historians, philosophers, and other inquirers.

Harvard University - John T. Edsall

An eminent pioneer of modern protein chemistry, Fruton (biochemistry emeritus, Yale U.) looks back on six decades in biochemical research and education to advance stimulating thoughts about science--how it is practical, how it is explained, and how its history is written. Annotation c. Book News, Inc., Portland, OR (booknews.com)

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