Abstract
THE study of vital change is becoming more and more a question of chemistry, and biologists, physiologists, as well as the medical profession, are all seeking the help which the chemist is likely to be able to afford them. A stage has been reached when the structure and the properties of all the essential substances which go to build up the living being have been established, though we must still be prepared for surprises, for new views and new interpretations. Essentially, however, we know enough about the fats, the sugars, the proteins and the pyrrol colouring matters and the way in which they are built up and decomposed, to be able to formulate at least an approximate picture of what is happening in what may be likened to a very busy laboratory. Further, the knowledge of colloids and their behaviour has taught us, or at least made it possible to postulate, that many of the actions in the cell take place at surfaces rather than in pools. Such knowledge has enabled some progress to be achieved in the understanding of the mode of action and significance of the enzymes, or ferments as the Continent terms them, a word which is more expressive perhaps of the turmoil that they are causing in the cell.
Chemische Grundlagen der Lebensvorgänge: eine Einführung in biologische Lehrbücher.
Von Prof. Dr. Carl Oppenheimer. Pp. vii + 298. (Leipzig: Georg Thieme, 1933.) 22.50 gold marks.
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A., E. Chemische Grundlagen der Lebensvorgänge: eine Einführung in biologische Lehrbücher. Nature 132, 334 (1933). https://doi.org/10.1038/132334a0
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DOI: https://doi.org/10.1038/132334a0