Preface -- Molecular Biology of the Cell -- NCBI Bookshelf

“There is a paradox in the growth of scientific knowledge. As information accumulates in ever more intimidating quantities, disconnected facts and impenetrable mysteries give way to rational explanations, and simplicity emerges from chaos.”

Thus began the preface of our first edition, written 18 years ago. Much of what we wrote in that preface holds for the present edition too. Our goals have not changed: we want to make cell biology comprehensible. We aim, as before, to give readers a perspective both on what is known, and on what is unknown. We have written the book for a wide range of students, but it should also prove useful for scientists wishing to follow progress outside their own specialized fields. As in past editions, each chapter is a joint composition of multiple authors and has been reviewed by a number of experts. This helps to explain why this edition, like the first, has been “a long time in gestation—three times longer than an elephant, five times longer than a whale.”

Although information in the life sciences is expanding rapidly, human brain capacity is not. This discrepancy creates an increasing challenge for textbook writers, teachers, and especially students. We have been forced to think harder than ever in deciding what facts and concepts are essential. We have had to summarize—omitting much detail that, in overabundance, can prevent understanding. But specific examples are still needed to bring the subject to life. Thus, the most difficult part of the revision has been deciding what to leave out, while the most rewarding has been the opportunity that new discoveries provide to strengthen the conceptual framework.

What is new in the 4th edition?

Genomics has given us a new perspective that has demanded a complete recasting and expansion of the material on molecular genetics ( and through ). These six chapters can now be used as a stand-alone text in molecular biology. As before, the book ends with a major section on Cells in Their Social Context, but we have added a new chapter on Pathogens, Infection, and Innate Immunity. This reflects the remarkable advances in the understanding of the cell biology of infection, as well as the renewed awareness that infectious disease remains one of the greatest unconquered dangers in our world.

As our book makes clear, the complete sequencing of the genomes of hundreds of organisms, from bacteria to humans, has revolutionized our understanding of living things and the relationships between them. At last we can see what is there: the set of genes and proteins is finite, and we can list them. But we also recognize that these components are combined for use in marvelously subtle and complex ways, even in the simplest of organisms. Therefore, the traditional explanatory cartoons that we show on nearly every page of the book generally represent only the primitive first step toward an explanation. These drawings cannot capture the enormous complexity of the networks of protein–protein interactions that are responsible for most intracellular processes, whose understanding will require new and more quantitative forms of analysis. Thus, we are no longer as confident as we were 18 years ago that simplicity will eventually emerge from the complexity. The extreme sophistication of cellular mechanisms will challenge cell biologists throughout the new century, which is very good news for the many young scientists who will succeed us.

As never before, new imaging and computer technologies have changed the ways we can observe the inner workings of living cells. We have tried to capture some of the excitement of these observations in Cell Biology Interactive, a CD-ROM disk that is included with each book. It contains dozens of video clips, animations, molecular structures, and high-resolution micrographs, which complement the static material in individual book chapters. One cannot watch cells crawling, dividing, segregating their chromosomes, or rearranging their surface without feeling curious about the molecular mechanisms that underlie these processes. We hope that Cell Biology Interactive will stimulate this curiosity in students and thereby make the learning of cell biology easier and more rewarding. We also hope that instructors will use these visual resources in the classroom for the same purpose.

We are deeply indebted to the many people who have helped us with this revision. The experts who critically reviewed specific chapters are acknowledged separately on p. xxix. We are especially grateful to Julie Theriot, who largely wrote both and ; we have all benefited from her wisdom. We are also grateful to the other experts who made major contributions to individual chapters: Nancy Craig helped to revise part of ; Maynard Olson drafted the section on genome evolution in ; Peter Shaw helped to revise ; David Morgan largely wrote ; Lisa Satterwhite prepared initial drafts of ; Robert Kypta largely revised ; Cori Bargmann helped us to restructure ; and Paul Edwards played a central part in the revision of . Karen Hopkin drafted large parts of and . We are also very grateful to the many scientists who generously provided micrographs for the book and materials for the CD-ROM.

Finally we are indebted to the outstanding staff of Garland Publishing. Nigel Orme oversaw the production of the final artwork with remarkable skill and speed. Mike Morales put in endless hours tackling the diverse challenges of developing the CD-ROM. Emma Hunt skillfully and artfully set the entire text and figures into pages. Sarah Gibbs and Kirsten Jenner kept us organized. Adam Sendroff and Nasreen Arain connected us to our customers. Eleanor Lawrence prepared the Glossary, and Mary Purton collected many of the references. Through it all, Denise Schanck calmly directed the whole effort with great skill. Last, but not least, Tim Hunt and John Wilson once again created a masterful Problems Book that supplements the main text; they worked side-by-side with us and were a constant source of wise advice. Their clever problems illustrate how discoveries are made and provide a unique way of learning cell biology.

It goes without saying that our book could not have been written without the strong support of our families and the forbearance of our friends, colleagues, and students. For decades, they have had to put up with our absences at frequent and lengthy book meetings, where most of the writing was done. They have helped us in innumerable ways, and we are grateful to them all.