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| View Larger Image | The Life of a Virus: Tobacco Mosaic Virus as an Experimental Model, 1930-1965 | Paperbackby Angela N. H. Creager (Author)
| List Price: | $35.00 | | | Available: | Usually ships in 24 hours |
| | Binding: | Paperback | | Publisher: | University Of Chicago Press | | Edition: | 1st Edition | | Page Count: | 352 Pages | | Publication Date: | December 01, 2001 | | Sales Rank: | 1,799,669st |
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EDITORIAL REVIEWS |
Product Description
We normally think of viruses in terms of the devastating diseases they cause, from smallpox to AIDS. But in The Life of a Virus, Angela N. H. Creager introduces us to a plant virus that has taught us much of what we know about all viruses, including the lethal ones, and that also played a crucial role in the development of molecular biology.Focusing on the tobacco mosaic virus (TMV) research conducted in Nobel laureate Wendell Stanley's lab, Creager argues that TMV served as a model system for virology and molecular biology, much as the fruit fly and laboratory mouse have for genetics and cancer research. She examines how the experimental techniques and instruments Stanley and his colleagues developed for studying TMV were generalized not just to other labs working on TMV, but also to research on other diseases such as poliomyelitis and influenza and to studies of genes and cell organelles. The great success of research on TMV also helped justify increased spending on biomedical research in the postwar years (partly through the National Foundation for Infantile Paralysis's March of Dimes)—a funding priority that has continued to this day. |
CUSTOMER REVIEWS (Average Customer Rating: 5.0 based on 1 review)
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Great read by Max Narovlyansky (Boston, MA)  5 Stars
January 02, 2005
This historical account of research on a viral model system is educational and fun to read. It illuminates scientific research and lives of researchers, which should be of interest to scientists and laymen alike. Alot of emphasis is placed on personal scientific communication and the role government played in shaping post-WWII science.
The review is comprehensively researched and well written. The account highlights the role played by model systems in biological research as well as the impact it had on unexpected areas of bacteriology, genetic basis of heredity, etc.
Great fun to read.
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