The Eighth Day of Creation: The Makers of the Revolution in Biology(Commemorative Edition)

Back in the 1990s, in my early 50s, I thought about shifting into genetic counseling, and took a series of undergraduate biology courses in preparation. A most exciting day was when, in the Cell and Molecular Biology lab, my lab partner and I isolated DNA. I felt as if I were walking on air! Later, writing up a lab report, I reread large chunks of The Eighth Day of Creation, to see that the various experiments we carried out in that lab replicated the pathway to understanding that had gone on in the 1950s and '60s.I didn't make the move I was thinking about, but that course and the day we actually had a blob of DNA in our test tube, remains with me to this day. And this book put it all into context. Even today, it stands as a wonderful review of the process that resulted in a major "paradigm shift" (a la Kuhn) in biology. While The Double Helix is a fun, gossipy way to get into popular biology literature, The Eighth Day of Creation is where the real story is to be found.Today, in the week of the bicentennial of Darwin's birth, I recommend this book as a great way to follow the thread from Darwin's deep insights of the mid-19th century to what we knew by the last 3rd of the 20th century. Obviously, the story continues from there, but the period covered by the book was seminal. And yes, some elementary biology is good background for reading it, but just as important is an interest in the social networks that underly an area of scientific endeavor. What Judson gives us is a picture of how the various scientists fed into each other's insights and experiment led into experiment. He's very good at describing important biological concepts -- readers with just a little biology under their belts will have no trouble following him.

When I received the book, advised by a friend, I got a shock. So thick with such small writing, I thought I'd never get through it! What a mistake; the text engulfed me and although not always prepared to such exposure of scientific material, my interest rarely subsided. I was fascinated to see how imagination and common sense were instrumental to push research. How ideas that are so obvious today seemed as wild hypotheses. How people just missed them. And how "gentlemanly" research was in those days. People spoke to each other, compared results, even before printing an abstract. Today, to preserve priority claims, scientists rush to the editor! Fierce competition has taken over.DNA is central to our epoch and it's difficult to imagine that reputed scientists thought that the molecule was stupid, that it had nothing to do with genetics and that a genetic code was a hopeless idea. And the worst was still to come once the structure of DNA had been discovered! The eighth day of creation, a beautiful title, is a great book for those interested in the background of research work.

I like prompt answers and supply from Amazon side , thank you for this. The book is also very valuable and I feel happy to have it now.Best Regards,Gunay Kurcan

If you're a student of biology or science in general, this is the best, most comprehensive look at the origins molecular biology.

Cold spring harbor has made tremendous contributions to the sciences for nearly two centuries, this work is an exhaustive tome on the lives and techniques that has made cloning, genome sequencing and other molecular revolutions possible.

it arrived early and in fine condition. it gave me insight into DNA and was a good story on the scientists and their fields of discovery. It combines physics and chemistry and microbiology as the experts in these fields worked ;out how our inheritance really works.

Definitive history of the development of the field. Amazing book if you are in or interested in the field.

A must read for anyone interested in molecular biology

Although this is the twenty-fifth anniversary edition, the general public will not have been exposed to 90% of the material contained within. This book is still very relevant and I would recommend it to anyone considering a college course in genetics, microbiology or molecular chemistry. I would also recommend it to any citizen wishing to learn a little more about how hereditary information is stored in DNA but an interest in reading about science is a prerequisite or you will never get through the 644 pages.

現在は絶版となっている翻訳版は30年以上も前に一気に読んだ記憶がある。この本を読むという講義で使用するために、英語版を今回初めて読んでみた。「面白い」の一言である。一気に読めてしまう。教科書では、あと知恵できちんとまとめられてしまい命を失ってしまった知識が、実際にはそうそう論理的に進められたわけでもなく、また現在は教科書で「これが決め手の実験である」と読んだら有無を言わせず正しいとされている考え方（例えば、DNAは遺伝情報物質である）も、当時は一級の研究者でもなかなか受け入れがたかったことなど、現場の臨場感が伝わってくる。読後、「やっぱり面白い研究をやろう！」と心から思える一冊である。つくづく研究とは人間の営みであることがわかり、こういうことに触れなければ生物学は無味乾燥な暗記物と割り切ってしまう高校生や大学生の気持ちがよくわかる一冊である。絶版中の日本語訳が復活することを祈る。

分子生物学の誕生の記録。主な登場人物はクリック、ブレンナー、ペルツ、モノーです(その他にもワトソン、デルブリュックとかベンザーとか沢山沢山)。2重らせん、遺伝暗号解読とリボソーム、オペロン、タンパク質の立体構造などの問題が解明されていく途中で、彼らがどのような思想で問題をとらえ、どのような仮説を立て、どうやって効果的な判定実験を構想して前進していったかが、主要人物への詳細なインタビュー、当時交わされた手紙の丹念な分析などでとてもわかりやすく、臨場感あふれるかたちで展開されていきます。結構な大著ですが、すぐに引き込まれてしまい、ものすごい知的興奮を味わうことが出来ました。　個人的には彼らが常に次のステップの大きな問題は何か、を考えていたこと(特にブレンナーの先見の明)、クリックの問題の分け方の見事さがとても印象的でした。近年のバイオメディカル研究は、どうしてもテクニック指向、プロジェクト指向になってしまいがちですが、問題を思想的に大きく捉え、学問としての方向性を考えていくことの重要性を再認識させてくれました。また分子生物学の考え方そのものを生まれたままに近いかたちで感じ取ることができると思います。分子生物学の一番いい教科書かも。

This is one of the very few books that covers the early history of molecular biology. I have read Olby's Path to double helix, Morange's history of MB, several books of Watson. All these books complement each other, and always give slightly different perspective on certain events (like famous discovery of double helix and problems between Watson & Crick and Wilkins & Franklin). I have not finished reading the book, but I find it written in a refreshing style, although for a non-native speaker, sometimes sentences are too long, and some unusual expressions are used. But, since this is not a novel, more like a documentary, it will for sure be interesting for anyone interested in the topic.

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