2009 Press Releases
22.06.2009
Scientific American, the prestigious popular science magazine, targets both academic and lay audiences. It is the oldest continuously-published magazine in the US with a worldwide circulation exceeding 600,000. Its Book Club has selected Professor David Sheehan’s (Biochemistry Dept) “Physical Biochemistry: Principles and Applications” (John Wiley & Sons, ISBN 0470856033, 9780470856031; 424pp) for feature this coming August.
This is the second edition of an undergraduate textbook dealing with the main physical techniques used in the analysis of important biological molecules such as proteins and DNA. These are sometimes enormous molecules (many millions of times bigger than a simple water molecule for example) which present unique challenges in their handling and analysis. The methods described include analytical methods that exploit physical phenomena like light and mass and separation methods such as chromatography and electrophoresis, which also depend on taking advantage of physical differences between proteins.
The first edition (published in 2001) was adopted for physical biochemistry and biophysics courses in more than 100 universities worldwide including University of California, San Diego, Aarhus, Denmark, Singapore National University, Oxford and Kings College London, UK. The book is also often used by graduate students and postdoctoral researchers. Last April Professor Sheehan also published a second book, “Two Dimensional Electrophoresis Protocols” (Springer, ISBN: 978-1-58829-937-6; 550pp), co-edited with his former PhD student, Dr Raymond Tyther, which is Volume 519 in the very popular series “Methods in Molecular Biology”.
Picture: Prof David Sheehan