Biology, Computing, and the History of Molecular Sequencing: From Proteins to DNA, 1945-2000 (Science, Technology and Medicine in Modern History)
Author: Visit ‘s Miguel García-Sancho Page ID: 0230250327
Review
‘Overall, this book provides a detailed time line of the events from the earliest methodologies to the metagenomic sequencing standard of today, and is a useful resource for anyone interested in the historical angle of DNA sequencing. Highly recommended.’ – M.C. Pavao, Worcester State College, Choice “…an invaluable, possibly even essential, addition to the bookshelf of anyone wishing to understand modern biology in all its facets…The author has done a masterful job of integrating information about the way in which different aspects of computer science…have contributed to the development of sequencing.” – Neeraja Sankaran, British Journal for the History of Science, 46: 544 “…a revised dissertation, grounded in a remarkable variety of primary sources including corporate records and oral history interviews.” – Ruth Schwatz Cowan, American Historical Review, June 2013: 827
About the Author
Series: Science, Technology and Medicine in Modern HistoryHardcover: 256 pagesPublisher: Palgrave Macmillan (June 19, 2012)Language: EnglishISBN-10: 0230250327ISBN-13: 978-0230250321 Product Dimensions: 5.5 x 0.6 x 8.5 inches Shipping Weight: 14.9 ounces (View shipping rates and policies) Best Sellers Rank: #2,703,915 in Books (See Top 100 in Books) #1037 in Books > Computers & Technology > Computer Science > Bioinformatics #1297 in Books > Textbooks > Medicine & Health Sciences > Medicine > Special Topics > History #2245 in Books > Science & Math > Biological Sciences > Biology > Molecular Biology
Contemporary biological research heavily relies on computers and the automation of procedures that range from the mechanization of experiments to the uses of software for analytical purposes. Nowhere is this symbiosis between biology and computing closer than in contemporary genomics, almost a synonymous word for bioinformatics. The highly technical nature of today’s genomic research, concentrated in large automated facilities requiring large amounts of public and private financing, its contentious marketing of recreational genetics services, and its vociferous promises for individualized medicine, have made it a research heaven for sociologists of science. By contrast, genomics –and the confluence of biology and computing, in general- has proved highly elusive for the professional historian of science. This is so for several reasons, some of them deriving from the very recent character of these practices (see below), but others more related to the disciplinary constraints of the historian of science, who has been trained either in the history of biology or in the history of computers, but not both. Miguel García-Sancho’s book represents an outstanding accomplishment in bringing together those two realms, contributing to our understanding of the complicated history of how an important segment of biological research became the computerized and highly automated practice of today’s genomics.
For historians of the life sciences in the 20th century, Biology, Computing and the History of Molecular Sequencing represents a big leap in bringing together histories from molecular biology, computer science, mathematics and even evolutionary biology.
I’ve heard said that nothing is worse for a book than being ignored. Even a bad review is better than none, because the book is getting talked about. So while I did not love this book, I do think it has it’s share of merits. Here’s my published review of it, reprinted from: Sankaran, N. (2013). Review: Miguel García-Sancho, Biology, Computing, and the History of Molecular Sequencing: From Proteins to DNA, 1945-2000. The British Journal for the History of Science, 46(03), 543-544. doi:10.1017/S0007087413000629.
Anyone who either worked in a research laboratory during the 1970s, 1980s or 1990s, or followed
the vicissitudes of biology during that time, can look forward to a trip down memory lane when
they read this book. Make that four lanes, if you were involved with DNA sequencing in any way.
Do you remember pouring polyacrylamide gels between those tall sheets of glass held together
with clamps? (Mine, I have to admit sheepishly, leaked and wound up as often in the sink as
between those sheets). How about melting agarose in order to pour those smaller gels (much
easier) for RFLP analyses? Or wicking solutions through sheets of filter paper to produce
chromatograms with different-coloured spots? The furore over PCR and its eccentric inventor,
Kary Mullis? Miguel García-Sancho brings all these memories – which were in turns exciting,
exhilarating, embarrassing or often just downright exhausting – vividly back to life in his new
book recounting the history of molecular sequencing in the second half of the twentieth century.
Sequencing today is inextricably linked with, indeed entirely subsumed within, molecular
biology, a fact that, the author laments, has also caused its history to be conflated with that of
DNA and genomics.
Download Biology, Computing, and the History of Molecular Sequencing: From Proteins to DNA, 1945-2000 Epub Download
EdiCenderawasih954
