Recent Progress in Genetics

Abstract

IF the first volume may be taken as a fair sample of what is to come, many biologists besides geneticists proper will extend a warm welcome to the new series of “Advances in Genetics”, edited by Dr. M. Demerec. No one nowadays can be confident of accomplishing the Sisyphæan task of keeping up with the literature, except within a very narrow field, which can scarcely comprise more than one section of such a broad discipline as genetics. Yet it becomes clearer every day that even sciences which were conventionally considered quite distinct do, in fact, throw revealing gleams of illumination on to one another, and may suddenly coalesce in the most unexpected, but fertile, unions. In these circumstances, a vital part is played by critical summaries of recent progress, detailed enough to reveal what is actually known and what is merely guessed, yet concise enough to deal with an important topic in a compass which the busy specialist in other fields can find time to absorb. In the past, there have been few such reviews on genetical subjects; this lack the new series is designed to fill.

Advances in Genetics

Edited by M. Demerec. Vol. 1. Pp. xvi + 458.; (New York: Academic Press, Inc.; London: H. K. Lewis and Co., Ltd., 1947.) 7.50 dollars.