Product Description
Edited by the inventor of polymerase chain reaction (PCR) and the 1993 Nobel Prize winner in Chemistry, Kary Mullis, as well as two experts in the field, this handbook provides up-to-date methodological protocols from the world's leading laboratories, in addition to new techniques and enhanced applications not yet available in book form. Nearly 40 chapters inform the novice and experienced PCR user on how to optimize their results. In the chapters on applications, researchers provide not only protocols, but also descriptions of how PCR has revolutionized their particular field. Future enhancements of PCR, as well as new potential uses, are discussed. Readers can learn how PCR has changed the face of diagnostic testing, cancer research, genetics, forensics, plant biology, DNA sequencing and gene therapy. Special sections include the latest on QPCR, non-isotopic detection, genetic analysis, and PCR and the world of business, which includes a behind-the-scenes look at the legal battles between biotech giants Cetus and DuPont. It also provides insights into the origins of PCR and the history of nucleic acid research. ... Read more

Product Description
This is the first comprehensive handbook on polymerase chain reaction (PCR). Edited by the inventor of PCR and the 1993 Nobel Prize winner in Chemistry, Kary Mullis, and two prominent experts in the field. It provides the most up-to-date methodological protocols from the world's leading laboratories, as well as exciting new techniques and enhanced applications not yet available in book form. Nearly forty chapters will inform the novice and experienced PCR user on how to optimize their results.

The applications chapters are quite unique, with the foremost researchers providing not only protocols, but descriptions of how PCR has revolutionized their particular field. Future enhancements of PCR as well as new potential uses are discussed. Readers will learn how PCR has changed the face of diagnostic testing, cancer research, genetics, forensics, plant biology, DNA sequencing, gene therapy, and much more!

Special sections include the latest on QPCR, non-isotopic detection, genetic analysis, and PCR and the World of Business, which includes a fascinating behind-the-scenes look at the legal battles between biotech giants Cetus and DuPont, as well as insights into the origins of PCR and the history of nucleic acid research. Every researcher working with PCR will want to own a copy of this book.

Edited by the 1993 Nobel Prize Winner!Also available in Hardcover ISBN 0-8176-3607-2 ... Read more

Product Description
From cloning to HIV, global warming to astrology, and the O.J. Simpson trial to turning on a light bulb with one's mind, this work challenges us to question scientific dogma. Awarded the 1993 Nobel Prize for Chemistry, Kery Mullis has frequently been at odds with the scientific establishment.Amazon.com Review
Kary Mullis won the Nobel Prize for his invention of thepolymerase chain reaction, a chemical procedure that allows scientiststo "see" the structures of the molecules of genes. Mullis is no shy,socially inept bench chemist, though; on the contrary, he has led asbig and full a life as possible, opening himself to experiences likehallucinogenic drugs, surfing, casually handling dangerous chemicals,and taking shots at the sacred cows of science. Dancing Naked inthe Mind Field is Mullis's own chronicle of his adventures, fromwooing countless women to possibly being abducted by aliens, and it'sa funny, shocking tale indeed. This man certainly doesn't suffer fromlack of self-esteem, and yet you might want him along on a trip to theastral plane, say, or a tour of the human genome. Mullis is afascinating character and his autobiography will put to rest foreverthe stereotype of scientist as skeptical nerd.--ThereseLittleton ... Read more

Customer Reviews (109)

Unfounded, Disorganized, Egotistical, and Bizzare
The possibility for anything profound in this book is far overshadowed by his absurd denial-ism of the HIV to Aids connection, CFCs to Ozone depletion link, and the possibility of climate change in general..He talks about being abducted by aliens, the ability to be in someone else's mind, and gives credit to horoscopes and astrology.

I expected this book to illustrate an interesting life philosophy or, at the least, tell his account of his invention of the PCR.Instead, all I got was a collection of disorganized rants by a narcissist.

Pick this book up if you're looking for bizarre stories about LSD fueled trips, alien abductions, and experimentation with drugs.If you're looking for something worthwhile, look elsewhere.

Dancing...
Absolutely amazing piece.Mullis is brilliant, sarcastic, hell-bent.. you see a concise picture of what makes him him.His commentary on the world should reveal a lot to any common walnut, while to those interested in biochemistry and the such can smile, applaud, and appreciate the fact that there is at least someone else in the world who understands...

Almost new, excellent conditions
funny reading, but I was expecting something more scientific. However, I enjoyed the book anyway.

"long pretelevision days of evolution"
This book, Dancing Naked in the Mind Field, was so enthralling that I almost read it through literally in one sitting after randomly flipping it open and sitting down to finish the paragraph I first set my eyes on.I came to Amazon excited to give it a positive review and was surprised to find the high number of negative reviews.As far as I can tell, many of the negative reviewers don't understand the author or the point of this book.

Reviewers who describe Mullis as a sloppy, irresponsible scientist who just got lucky need to reflect on the fact that he was recruited by Cetus (the company he was working at when he developed PCR), which also saw fit to put him in charge of a research team.This was all before the Nobel prize; he was making traditional professional progress without celebrity.

One of the things that's clear from the book is that Mullis has a deep life-long concern with systemic power structures and the way they warp both our lives and scientific research.So, for example, critics of his views on HIV/AIDS fail to see that he took a position on the topic after one of his friends was ostracized from the professional community for having the "wrong" views in the early days when AIDS research was new and less settled.The same is true of the OJ Simpson trial, which excited Mullis less because he thought so highly of OJ than because he wanted a chance to take down the enormous and overwhelmingly powerful bureaucracy of the LA prosecutor's office.Likewise, astrology is less about whether the stars affect our personality than about the largely unscientific and ineffective field of mental health.

The other face of Mullis' anti-institutional views is a type of humanism, which leads him to say things that, frankly, make perfect sense to me.NASA spends huge amounts of money on the shuttle program and international space station.What the heck are we getting out of it?Why don't we focus first on figuring out how to protect ourselves from natural threats (like the decimation of life from an asteroid impact) before figuring out how to set up a Mars colony.A Mars colony might be exciting, but it's not very practical and isn't doing anything for the man on the street.At one point, he suggests we might just be better off with priests of medieval religion than with priests of modern science.This is similar to the criticisms Nassim Taleb has been making of our priests of Wall Street, and I think it makes sense.

The writing is fast-moving and humor-filled, although inconsistent.I don't know who came up with the clunky title, but most of the book is wittier.He discusses the fact that his wife Nancy encouraged him in writing this book and then edited it.Some parts about PCR are dumbed down versions of his Nobel Prize lecture, so I suspect his wife encouraged him to write something that would be accessible to the general public but still get across his message that we should turn off the TV, do good science, and enjoy the ride.

I love this book
This book is a great read. It's jam-packed full of scientific quirkiness. I loved it. ... Read more

Product Description
Word count: 1294. ... Read more

Product Description
Chapters: Isaac Asimov, Linus Pauling, Kary Mullis, Konrad Emil Bloch, Walter Gilbert, Gregory Goodwin Pincus, Stanley B. Prusiner, Martin Kamen, Gerty Cori, Michael Behe, Roger Y. Tsien, Joseph L. Goldstein, Mila Rechcigl, Robert K. Crane, Martin Rodbell, Miguel Ondetti, James B. Aguayo-Martel, Marshall Warren Nirenberg, Selman Waksman, Joseph S. Fruton, Joseph Schlessinger, Philip Handler, Arthur Kornberg, Carl Ferdinand Cori, Rashad Khalifa, Samuel Mitja Rapoport, Roy Mackal, Tuan Vo-Dinh, Kenneth Breslauer, Jane S. Richardson, Orange Judd, Merrill Garnett, Conrad Elvehjem, Ralph F. Hirschmann, Edwin G. Krebs, Paul D. Boyer, Robert Bruce Merrifield, Margaret Oakley Dayhoff, Robert F. Furchgott, Edward D. Goldberg, Bruce Alberts, Gideon Dreyfuss, Irwin Gunsalus, Mahlon Hoagland, Arieh Warshel, Lawrence Joseph Henderson, Paul Berg, Efraim Racker, David Sanders, Marvin Makinen, Edmond H. Fischer, Sam Ruben, Arthur Pardee, Sheldon Segal, John Jacob Abel, George Church, Rollin Hotchkiss, Marie Maynard Daly, Wendell Meredith Stanley, Ida Pauline Rolf, Elmer L. Gaden, Harvey Itano, David S. Mckay, John C. Sanford, Lewis Joel Greene, Myron L. Bender, Charles Glen King, Nancy Andrews, Lorene Rogers, William Jencks, Gertrude B. Elion, Severo Ochoa, J. Edwin Seegmiller, Bernard Brodie, Robert W. Holley, Joseph Samachson, Annette Salmeen, Vincent Du Vigneaud, Edward Adelbert Doisy, Horace Barker, Karl Paul Link, Carl Niemann, Thomas A. Steitz, Edwin B. Hart, Angela Belcher, Otto Folin, Bruce Ames, Lubert Stryer, Laura Manuelidis, William D. Mcelroy, Albert L. Lehninger, Jonathan Dordick, Helmut Beinert, Donald Voet, Elvin A. Kabat, Michael H. Gelb, Mark Griep, Michael M. Gottesman, Henry A. Lardy, Gilbert Chu, David Lester, Judith G. Voet, Robert H. Burris, Hans Neurath, Michael Somogyi, Christian R. H. Raetz, Stanford Moore, Bertil Hille, Vernon L. Schramm, Elmer Mccollum, Daniel Kraft, Christopher T. Walsh, Christopher Chang, W. Wal...More: http://booksllc.net/?id=14573 ... Read more