For the Love of Enzymes: The Odyssey of a Biochemist

"For the love of enzymes" is an informative and interesting personal account of a great biochemist. I bought my own copy years ago, and this one I got as a gift for a recent graduate.

I read this book when I was in graduate school working in a lab studying yeast replication proteins. Before the genes were cloned to allow overexpression of our proteins we had to purify the endogenous versions from large cultures. Reading this book really made me appreciate the enormous effort that went into designing a purification protocol that worked. Is it glamorous? No. Do you get really cold standing in the cold room? Of course. If you have ever purified proteins and wondered how long it took to develop the protocol, this book will give you an idea (and make you appreciate how good you have it).

This is a nice, well-written scientific autobiography. It has some quite entertaining anecdotes, some social message, and a lot biology from the forefront of enzyme-research that should not be forgotten. It also has a couple of verbatim repetitions withing the book, which are a bit odd. On the other hand, it has managed to convince me of something that I have already suspected - that purifying and studying enzymes must be one of the most boring lines of research on the face of this planet. Kronberg makes a very valiant effort trying to show the opposite, and it's obvious that he loves his research with passion, something that I truly admire. I recommend this book to anyone who is thinking of entering enzymology - I believe it will give them a reasonably realistic estimate on whether they will like the work or not (in my case the answer was no, but it's personal taste).