Product Description
This digital document is an article from World of Microbiology and Immunology, brought to you by Gale®, a part of Cengage Learning, a world leader in e-research and educational publishing for libraries, schools and businesses.The length of the article is 1187 words.The article is delivered in HTML format and is available in your Amazon.com Digital Locker immediately after purchase.You can view it with any web browser.Covers the concepts, theories, discoveries, and pioneers in microbiology and immunology, using a mix of traditional academic and topical articles, this title addresses current ethical, legal, and social issues with special emphasis given to biological warfare and terrorism. ... Read more

Product Description
This digital document is an article from Daedalus, published by American Academy of Arts and Sciences on January 1, 1999. The length of the article is 6829 words. The page length shown above is based on a typical 300-word page. The article is delivered in HTML format and is available in your Amazon.com Digital Locker immediately after purchase. You can view it with any web browser.

From the supplier: A liberal arts education can be useful in pursuing a career as a researcher or scientist. Liberal arts colleges provide quality research experience and facilities that are comparable more or less to those of larger institutions.

Citation Details
Title: Science at liberal arts colleges: a better education?(Distinctively American: The Residential Liberal Arts Colleges)
Author: Thomas R. Cech
Publication: Daedalus (Refereed)
Date: January 1, 1999
Publisher: American Academy of Arts and Sciences
Volume: 128Issue: 1Page: 195(2)

Distributed by Thomson Gale ... Read more

Product Description
In these 4 lectures, HHMI president and Nobel laureate Thomas R. Cech explains the role of RNA in cellular biology. He also discusses other implications of RNA catalysis. Lectures were given in 1995. ... Read more

Product Description
4 videoed lectures on VHS tapes from the Howard Hughes Medical Institute Holiday Lectures on Science, December 1995. ... Read more

Product Description
As both an informational molecule and a catalyst, RNA mayhold clues to the emergence of genetic self-replication and theorigins of life. The first, 1993 edition of this important work wasacclaimed as unique and authoritative. The new edition has beenrevised, updated, and extended, and offers a completely currentperspective on the modern world of RNA and the light it sheds on aprebiotic era perhaps dominated by this extraordinarily versatilemolecule. This book is essential reading for everyone interested inthe biology of nucleic acids, and is a valuable resource for teachingas well as investigative science. ... Read more

Customer Reviews (3)

An excellent primer
The title refers to the hypothesis that before there was DNA there was RNA, inhabiting a world in which not only basic synthesis but also the storing of genetic information was the prerogative of RNA.But the book is much more than this: it is a primer on the world of RNA in its many forms.Each chapter is an authoritative essay on a particular aspect of RNA, from riboswitches to the dynamics of RNA folding.Anyone who wants to access current knowledge about how cells function at a biochemical level should read this book; because of the breadth of subject-matter and the caliber of the contributors, even a specialist is likely to find something new and stimulating.

Too often books of this type are badly written and crammed with unexplained jargon; here the text is a masterpiece of clarity and technical terms are carefully introduced and elucidated.A non-specialist can easily pick up this book and, several hours later, emerge with a good conceptual framework in mind.

The only caveat is that today the field of RNA research is moving so quickly that any hardcopy text will quickly fall out of date.The new work on siRNA, for example, is progressing with such speed that the reader will want to supplement this text with some online research of their own in order to come right up-to-date.

Twenty Five Papers Sumarizing Current Research
Although it has been a lot of years since RNA was discovered, and even many years since the breakthrough discoveries by Altman and Cech of RNA Catalytic activity, the new discoveries keep coming, and indeed at a faster and increasing rate. I don't know if it has been the intent of this book to be a sort of master journal of the most significant happening in the area, but it seems to have turned out so.

This is the third edition of 'The RNA World' and it has a series of 25 papers produced by what might be called a 'Who's Who' and a 'What's What' of RNA research. The are broken down by categories with the following names:

The Origins of RNA and RNA at the Origin
Building a Functional RNA
Exiting the Ancient RNA World - Synthetases and Ribosomes
Richness of RNA Roles in a Modern RNA World
RNA Continues to Triumph Over DNA
Emerging Tools.

This is a book that any researcher, any laboratory, any organization doing RNA work simply has to have.

Excellent read.
As a second edition, this book is not just an updated version of the original.In fact, it should probably have been called volume 2, instead of second edition.If you have the original, you will want to put this onthe shelf next to it. The book covers a great deal in a field that israpidly moving forward.A must for people interested in what is going onin "the RNA world." ... Read more