Abstract

Biochemical Adaptation: Mechanism and Process in Physiological Evolution Hochachka, P. W., Somero, G. N.; Oxford University Press, 2002, 480 pp., ISBN 0-195-11702-6 (hardback), $80, ISBN 0-195-11703-4 (paperback), $40. This is an interesting book. Its aim is to provide an integrative review of knowledge in biochemistry from the viewpoint of the biologist interested in the synthetic analysis of the many data that have been found in biochemistry, particularly in the last two decades. The authors aim to integrate a wide range of information from fields such as metabolic regulation, genomics, or evolution. The major aim of the book is to find physiological implications from a wide set of data spread in the literature. The authors choose cellular metabolism, the influence of oxygen availability, the diving response, the tolerance to hypoxia, the evolution of the internal milieu, and the regulation of body temperature as the main parameters to study the integrative vision of biochemistry that is provided in this book. The main problem with this book, and with others of its kind, is that the reader needs to know the basic facts of biochemistry before attempting to study this volume. Indeed one has to know in some depth the basic facts of biochemistry and molecular biology, from metabolism to the regulation of gene expression, before studying the integrative approach offered by this book. Of course, it is impossible to offer both approaches in the same volume, i.e. the description of the main facts that constitute the large body of biochemistry and molecular biology today and also to offer the integrative vision that is offered in this book. Also, one might argue that some critically important physiological facts such as aging are not approached in this book. On the other hand, this volume offers a very unusual and very ingenious approach to the study of biochemistry. It will be useful for university students interested in biochemistry from many different approaches. Once the student has got a good hold on the basic facts of biochemistry from the analytical viewpoint, i.e. studying a classical biochemistry text book, then great pleasure can be derived from studying this book, which offers a radically new approach to biochemistry from the viewpoint of the adaptation of changes in conditions that spur the physiological evolution. Thus, I thoroughly recommend reading this book for those students of biochemistry interested not only in the usual analytical approach to problems but also in the more integrative physiological approach to the study of biochemistry.