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Buy Cells, Gels and the Engines of Life by Gerald H. Pollack available and for sale on Brightsurf
| View Larger Image | Cells, Gels and the Engines of Life
by Gerald H. Pollack
| | List Price: | $55.00 | | Price: | $41.80 | | You Save: | $13.20 (24%) |  | | Available: | Usually ships in 24 hours | | | | | Sales Rank: | 649374 | | Studio: | Ebner and Sons Publishers | | | Binding: | Hardcover | | Number Of Pages: | 320 | | Publication Date: | March 10, 2001 | | Publisher: | Ebner and Sons Publishers |
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EDITORIAL REVIEWS |
Book Description
This book describes how cells work. It challenges the current wisdom of cell function, and presents a new, simpler approach to fundamental processes such as movement, transport, division, and communication, based on sound physical principles. The book is profusely illustrated with many color figures. It is written for the non-expert in an accessible, often humorous style. |
CUSTOMER REVIEWS (Average Customer Rating: 4.0 based on 19 reviews)
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"ENTROPY IS TIMES ARROW," he says. 
Stars are only for creativity. For example, he adds, "the cell is very much an entropy machine." (P. 265) A more attractive title to this book would have been LIVING WATER. Pollack scares half his readers away with the CELLS & GELS stuff. I also have no idea why the reader would plug through 14 chapters of gook to get to the last two which actually frame his thesis. Chapters 15 & 16 should have opened the book.
Not many readers outside the field of biochemistry knew that the tap water one drinks has little in common with the gallons of water residing within the human cell. I don't think very many readers are interested in the semantics of whether this "structured water" is or is not called a Gel. Evidently Pollack considered that to be the most important subject in the book.
What is creative and interesting in his theory is how ingested water reacts with cell proteins. The way the Author puts it, "structured water" become the dominoes that are orderly set up so that they can be toppled. The disorder that results performs the work the cell needs to get done. "Order, the very hallmark of the living state, is in fact a cloaked mechanism for the storage of potential energy." (P. 253) But as mentioned above, the contorted twists, turns and science jargon he goes through to get to the ending is simply amazing. Diagramming in nanospace is a waste of time.
He very audaciously gave his account of the origins of life going back 4 billion years. There Pollack makes the case that water was the environment in which life formed. This symbiosis between water and proteins is why we are here. But he should have remembered Socrates line, "The only true wisdom is knowing you know nothing." Had he, then he wouldn't have skipped over protein folding with barely a historical mention. He might have realized that however water behaves in a cell it sometimes occurs in picoseconds, a time scale he didn't even bother to mention. There is, of course a much bigger picture than this book sketches out.
August 23, 2006 | |
Speaking as a current PhD candidate in biophysics... 
This book is funny as hell. Honestly.
Any author who publishes their own book over material they apparently know very little about, and gets other people not only to buy it--but to believe it...wow, just wow.
The author completely ignores about 20-30 years of molecular biology. For any student out there--please be wary--reading this during a cell biology course is suicide. You will be very confused. Of course, confused people tend to confuse the people who are willing to listen to them.
This book does bring up relatively forgotten history, which is an interesting point.
Read this book if you would like to have a few chuckles. The man largely ignores physics of the cell, diffusion, Bioenergetics, cellular differentiation, etc... in order to argue a point.
A large part of his book is over how cells are more like gels...this is not an issue that is in dispute except in the author's head. The fact that cell's don't freeze at zero celsius makes this obvious. However, the author acts as if this is not accepted dogma...weird? I thought so, too.
No reasonable publisher would have published this...hence, he published it himself. Sad and laughable, yes?
I would give this a negative score if possible because he is polluting young minds with nonsense.
However, after reading it, I believe that it is a decent attempt at humor. Because the whole book is a joke.
April 05, 2006 | |
A book that will change your whole outlook on cells and biology. 
This book is thought provoking and allows non-science majors to engage in the controversial theory that cells are like gels.
March 18, 2006 | |
Changed My View of Science
During my senior year of bioengineering at ASU, one of my instructors recommended that I read this book. I went on Amazon and purchased a copy. Tragically, I let it sit on my shelf for almost six months without reading it. About a year ago, I picked it up and read it, expecting it to be a labor-intensive read. It was not. Instead, in very simple terms and using simple yet convincing examples, Pollack managed to challenge everything I ever learned in school in two days (It only took two days because I found myself reading this book every chance I got; I coult not put it down).Challenging even many of the basic tenets of cellular biology-- from even the existance of selective ion channels in the fluid mosaic model of the cell wall to blowing the lid off of what every student is taught in school about the way muscle cells contract--Pollack writes a book that has been and will continue to be challenging, because it challenges the premises of the life-long work of many scientists. While I'm sure that some of his critiques of the beliefs of the faith of cellular biology today will prove to be wrong, Pollack is not afraid of the challenge or the community backlash against him. I applaud the work. I recommend it as required reading for just about everybody: the writing style makes it accessible for even high school students, but it is not too plebian to challenge even a professor or researcher in the area.
-Jacob
March 16, 2004 | |
A Must Read
Pollack's book is extremely insightful, although sometimes controversial. It looks at cell biology from a unique viewpoint. After reading this book, I have re-evaluated many established concepts in cell biology with new understanding and perspective. This is a must read for any serious student or researcher in the field of cell biology. I highly recommend this book.
December 02, 2003 | |
SIMILAR PRODUCTS |
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