David L. Nelson, Michael M. Cox, "Lehninger Principles of Biochemistry" (4th Edition)
W. H. Freeman | ISBN 0716743396 | 2004 Year | DjVu | 37 Mb | 1100 Pages
| “ | There basically are two top contenders for the #1 position for a biochemistry textbook: Lehninger vs Voet. At first sight, the 1650+ pages Voet text for 'chemistry' oriented students seems like it is too much for the competition. So, how can Lehninger do better in 1100 pages? There are several factors at play, and the 4th edition of Lehninger simply dominates Voet and the rest of the biochem texts out there as follows. The Lehnninger text has a long history, but given that biochemical knowledge doubles every 5 years or so, it matters what a text offers now, not in the past. The writing style is simple, direct, engaging, not too easy but neither too esoteric. The principles (as the title suggests) and the unity in diversity are emphasized, so that the student understands biochemical principles not merely facts, acronyms, pathways. The graphics are very professional. They are comparable to any review article in hot journals such as Nature, Science, Cell, etc. The rendering of protein surfaces, and the different angles through which a structure is seen is outstanding (a good example is the section on the ribosome). The structures have been rendered from the PDB (protein data bank) coordinates. Most are rendered in the ribbon representation, but in many cases the surface is rendered in grey, depending on the level of detail. Contrast this with the 3rd edition of Voet: the authors have not bothered to re-render their graphics, most are identical to the 1995 edition, a time when people only cared if you could generate a structure. Voet's graphics are not done uniformly; the backgrounds can be white, grey, black, some structures are taken directly from the original literature and vary widely in the format and rendering. It is not enough that Voet updated the text on biochemical developments from 1995-2004. The Lehninger pages on the most important protein folds, for example, are very helpful in giving the student a feel for the fold, the domain composition, the size, and names of model proteins one is expected to encounter over and again in the research literature. But pretty pictures are not the only thing that sets Lehninger apart from the rest. The material is distilled such that almost the same ammount of information is contained in this text, even though Voet is 50% bigger. There can be no such text as "Advanced Biochemistry" for grad students etc. -- if one is looking for that sort of thing, then one should purchase a life sciences encyclopedia. For undergraduates, any text is bound to be a bit overwhelming, but Lehninger is clear enough that the above average student should assimilate the material preparing for an exam without too much confusion or difficulty. I also like the typesetting in Lehninger much better than Voet, which again, uses the same boring format as the 2nd 1995 edition. The quality of paper is good in both texts. Lehninger's text feels like the space is utilized well, whereas Voet's space is a bit overcrowded, though strangely, some of the Voet structures are too large, and take up too much space. Lehninger encompases all the new developments up to 2004: RNAi, genomes, new facts on controversial enzyme mechanisms etc. Speaking of enzyme mechanism, both texts do a good job in deriving the Michaelis-Menten equation step by step rather than simply saying something like "through trivial algebra eqn 34 transforms into 45". The literature reference section of Lehninger is one of the best parts of the text: the references are a mixture of classic, outstanding work, and recent review materials, which should guide the more curious student to navigate the overwhelming ammount of information in modern biochemistry and molecular biology. I loved the numerous photos of key players in biochemistry. For example, Francis Crick is shown as a young man when the text refers to the model for DNA, and as a middle aged man in another chapter. The historical emphasis is well placed. The "working in biochemistry" boxes are similarly relevant and well placed. I only wish the current authors had added a brief sketch of Albert Lehninger. In fact, they do not mention the history of the text, which is a little strange. The text contains brief solutions to all the end-of-chapter problems so the solutions manual (unfortunately titled "The Absolute, Ultimate Guide...") is not really neccessary for the good student. I think the criticism that Voet is 'tougher' and has more 'chemistry' in it is not entirely fair. Any researcher cannot expect to find his/her answers for a particular mechanism in any textbook -- that's the whole point of research. The principles on the other hand, can be sufficiently explained with a selection of enzymes and their mechanism, which Lehninger delivers. The metabolism middle part of the book is a bit too large, but it is difficult to avoid this, as when it boils down to it, molecular biophysics and biology have to account for the behavior of a particular system. Grad students these days tend to ignore metabolism, but as they mature, they start to see its point (and the memory slowly starts to assimilate all these enzymes, substrates, products, inhibitors, conditions, pathways...). Voet, of course, also covers metabolism in a comprehensive way. In conclusion, contrary to what Voet reviewers said to "supplement Lehninger with Voet", I am suggesting students get a copy of Lehninger, either from the library or by purchasing their own copy, to supplement any biochemistry text with Lehninger. There is no other text out there that comes close to Lehninger. Which leads to the natural question, "why are there 10-20 biochem books currently in print?". Well, I certainly hope Lehninger will drive out of print most of them. | ” |
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