The Language of the Cell

This 100 page book from the McGraw-Hill "Horizons" science series is a translation from the French Hachette "Questions of Science" science series originally published in 1991. This makes the book 12 years old, but having just completed an upper division cell biology course a few weeks ago I can tell you the content of this little book is still fairly Fresh. Kordon does a good job of rattling off the latest in cell and molecular biology in a very qualitative, linguistic style that nevertheless manages to retain the essence of what actually occurs within and outside of the cell. It ends with an odd segue about disciplinary conscilience and politics, but this takes up only about 10% or less of the book. Mostly the book is about cell surface and intracellular signaling, immunology, developmental biology, evolutionary molecular genetics, with various proteins and hormones thrown in. I read this book once before I took cell biology and once after. It was a little confusing in the former case and a little simplistic in the latter, but each time it still conveyed a vast amount of information in a very short span; making the book, I think, a brisk, rewarding read for both the scientist and lay reader alike. Kordon makes a couple of credible stabs at correlating neuroendocrinology with social behavior and describing putative molecular evolutionary possibilities in terms of highly conserved cellular signaling pathways; and all with that certain French flair. In attempting to explain his own clumsy explanations Kordon says,"No metaphor is really explanatory; rather, it reflects the cultural references through which we have been conditioned to decipher reality. But these cultural references play an important role in the way we look at the world. We have not yet really learned how to teach biology through the cultural references of our time, which perhaps explains why for many of our contemporaries its picture is still somewhat blurred."How can you complain about a cellular biologist who is also a structural literary critic.