Review of "Glossary of Biotechnology and Nanobiotechnology Terms" by Kimball Nill
BioMedical Engineering OnLine
Book review Review of "Glossary of Biotechnology and Nanobiotechnology Terms" by Kimball Nill Ming Jiang*
0 Address: LMAM, School of Mathematical Sciences, Peking University , Beijing 100871 , China
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Biotechnology is now not only the field of professionals
but also frequently shows up in newspapers and popular
magazines for the general public with its advanced and
diverse applications in fields such as food industry and
healthcare that affect the daily life and future of human
being. With the rapid expanding and evolving of
biotechnology, new terms are entering the nomenclature at a
rapid pace (from the preface), though they are not easily
understandable except for a small group of experts. It is
important for scientists of other branches to keep abreast
of the latest terminology and necessary for
non-professionals to understand buzzwords such as "Apo A-1
Milano", "CD95 Protein", "FRET", "hedgehog signaling
pathway", "lysophosphatidylethanolamine". "Glossary of
Biotechnology and Nanobiotechnology Terms, Fourth
Edition", is "a handy reference designed for people with little
or no training in the biological and chemical sciences" (from
the back cover) written for the aforementioned purposes.
The book provides the definitions of biotechnolgy and
nanobiotechnology terminology which includes terms
from the fields of biology, biochemistry, chemistry, and
nanotechnology. The current book is a result of the
author's effort of continuing improvement over a decade
since the first edition published in 1993. The current
edition contains 402 text pages, more than two and half
times of the first edition. In this edition, the author has
added "nanotech" terms relevant to biotechnology to the
glossary (from the preface).
The book is intended for "anyone working directly or
indirectly with those pioneering the frontiers of modern biology"
(from the back cover). The author has written the book for
readers without necessarily holding advanced degrees in
biochemistry or molecular biology and made certain
compromise between absolute scientific rigor and definitions
based on analogy, with the inherent possibility of
oversimplification (from the preface). The cross reference after
each item is extensive and provides the logical
connections with other items for readers to explore relevant
topics.
Some comments about the book are in the following. The
cross-references would be ideal in a hyperlink form such
as an online format or in a companying CDROM. I found
by Google that an online format is available for its earlier
2nd edition [1]. However, the content there is not as
updated as the current 4th edition. Definitions can be
more illustrative with color figures. especially for those
items about cell, protein or DNA structures. Moreover, I
do not agree with the statement on the back cover that the
book "allows one to follow a reference chain that enhances
clarity right down to a high school level." Extra efforts and
references are required to fully understand the analogies and
examples. Finally, let me quote one interesting comment
by Eleanor Randall in the review of the same book: "As I
began this review, I needed a clearer definition of
nanobiotechnology and its relationship with bionanotechnology.
Interestingly, the title term nanobiotechnology was not included in The
The book will help one keep current with the
biotechnology and nanotechnology terminology, communicate
successfully with those working on the cutting-edge of
modern science and enter interdisciplinary
collaborations. This book is recommended to scientists, engineers,
attorneys, government workers, lobbyists, venture
capitalists, and university tech transfer staff, especially for
personnel with no advanced training in biological and
chemical sciences to understand concepts and buzzwords
that are indispensable to their work. Nevertheless,
biotechnologist, who is probably only an expert in one of the
diverse areas of biotechnology, and advanced students in
one of the many biotechnology fields, may find it useful.
1. Glossary of Biotechnology Terms, 2nd Edition [http://biotech terms.org/]. Technomic Publishing Company, INC
2. Randall E : Book Reviews: Glossary of Biotechnology and Nanobiotechnology Terms. Issues in Science and Technology Librarianship 2006 , Spring:http://www.istl. org/06-spring/review1 .html. (...truncated)