Biochemistry: A Very Short Introduction

Citation

Lorch, M. (2021). Biochemistry: A Very Short Introduction. Oxford University Press.

Chapter Summary

The book is volume 674 of Oxford's Very Short Introductions, a pocket-sized first edition of about 125 pages of text in eight chapters, with a preface, a list of illustrations, references, further reading and an index. Its author is head of the Department of Chemistry and Biochemistry at the University of Hull and professor of science communication and public engagement there. The publisher describes biochemistry as the study of the reactions inside cells, of the molecules those reactions create, change and destroy, and of the large macromolecules (DNA, proteins, carbohydrates, the cytoskeleton) that form the cell's machinery and structure. It says the book covers the key concepts of the field together with the historical figures and the molecules they studied, then current science and innovation, and the relationship between biochemistry, biotechnology and synthetic biology. Drugs such as penicillin and aspirin and the toxin botulinum appear in that description as examples of chemistry that modifies biochemical processes.

Chapter 1: The Roots of Biochemistry

The longest chapter (about 23 pages) traces the history of the field and connects it with fermentation, one of the oldest forms of biotechnology. Starting with history establishes the book's approach of presenting the science through the people and experiments that produced it.

Chapter 2: Water, Lipids, and Carbohydrates

A short chapter on the basic small molecules of life. It explains how the polarity of water makes it an effective solvent, the roles of lipids in storing energy, in signalling and as structural material, and carbohydrates as both fuel and structural scaffolding for cells; nucleotides are also introduced as building blocks.

Chapter 3: Proteins: Nature's Nano-machines

Proteins are presented as the main machinery of the cell. The chapter relates protein structure to function, explains how post-translational modifications extend the chemical variety available beyond the twenty standard amino acids, and ends with enzyme kinetics and the protein folding problem.

Chapter 4: Nucleic Acids: Life's Blueprints

As its title signals, this chapter introduces DNA and RNA as the molecules that store and carry genetic information, completing the survey of the main classes of biological molecules begun in Chapters 2 and 3.

Chapter 5: Powering a Cell: Bioenergetics

The chapter turns from molecules to energy: how cells capture and use the energy that drives their chemistry.

Chapter 6: Manufacturing and Maintaining DNA

The second chapter on nucleic acids deals with how DNA is made and maintained, extending the structural account of Chapter 4 to the processes that copy and preserve the genetic material.

Chapter 7: Following Biochemistry within the Cell

This chapter moves to how biochemistry is observed inside living cells, in keeping with the publisher's promise of current science and innovation in the field.

Chapter 8: Biotechnology and Synthetic Biology

The final chapter covers the use of biochemical knowledge to manipulate living systems, the interaction between biochemistry, biotechnology and synthetic biology that the publisher names as the book's closing theme.

Key Concepts

Chapters 1–2: History and small molecules

• Fermentation: the conversion of sugars by microorganisms, one of the oldest biotechnologies and a starting point of biochemistry's history.
• Polarity of water: the uneven distribution of charge in water molecules that makes water a good solvent for the molecules of life.
• Lipids: molecules that store energy, carry signals and form structures such as membranes.
• Carbohydrates: sugars and their polymers, used as fuel and as structural material.

Chapter 3: Proteins

• Structure and function: the principle that what a protein does depends on its three-dimensional shape.
• Post-translational modification: chemical changes to a protein after it is made that extend the variety of its building blocks.
• Enzyme kinetics: the study of the rates of enzyme-catalysed reactions.
• Protein folding problem: the question of how a chain of amino acids reaches its working shape.

Chapters 4–6: Information and energy

• Nucleic acids: DNA and RNA, the molecules that store and transmit genetic information.
• Bioenergetics: the study of how cells obtain and use energy.
• DNA replication and maintenance: the processes by which DNA is copied and kept intact.

Chapters 7–8: Methods and applications

• Biochemistry in the cell: studying reactions and molecules in their cellular setting.
• Synthetic biology: the design and construction of new biological parts and systems on the basis of biochemical understanding.

Critical Analysis

Strengths

• A real first overview. In eight short chapters the book covers the history of the field, the main classes of biomolecules, energy, the handling of DNA, methods for studying cells and applications, a broad sweep for so short a book.
• History and people. Opening with a long historical chapter, and promising throughout to present the scientists and the molecules they studied, gives readers a sense of how biochemical knowledge was obtained, not only what it is.
• Current science and applications. Two of the eight chapters deal with present-day research methods and with biotechnology and synthetic biology, and the publisher's examples (penicillin, aspirin, botulinum toxin) tie the chemistry to medicine and everyday life.
• Written by a science communicator. The author heads a university chemistry and biochemistry department and holds a professorship in science communication and public engagement, a combination suited to a book meant for readers new to the subject.

Limitations

• Very brief treatment of each topic. At roughly 125 pages, a chapter such as the one on water, lipids and carbohydrates has about ten pages; there is no room for chemical structures in detail, quantitative treatment or practice problems.
• No metabolism chapter. The contents have no chapter on metabolic pathways beyond the single chapter on bioenergetics; readers who need glycolysis, the citric acid cycle or fatty acid and amino acid metabolism must turn to a textbook.
• A survey, not a course text. The contents show no exercises or problem sets, and the book cannot replace a textbook for an examined course.

Where It Fits in the Course

This is the shortest and least technical book in the biochemistry course, best read before or at the very start of a first course. Goodsell's The Machinery of Life is the natural companion: its paintings of molecules at true scale and in realistic crowding make concrete what Lorch describes in words, especially the protein and cell chapters. For the course itself, the first-course textbooks take over: McKee and McKee's Biochemistry: The Molecular Basis of Life (written for students with limited chemistry), Pratt and Cornely's Essential Biochemistry and Hines and colleagues' Biochemistry: A Short Course cover structure, enzymes, metabolism and genetic information with problem sets.

The longer textbooks (Berg and colleagues' Biochemistry, Lehninger Principles of Biochemistry, Voet, Voet and Pratt's Fundamentals of Biochemistry, Appling and colleagues' Biochemistry: Concepts and Connections, Miesfeld and McEvoy's Biochemistry) are comprehensive treatments for a full sequence. Kuriyan and colleagues' The Molecules of Life explains macromolecules through physical chemistry, and McMurry and Begley's The Organic Chemistry of Biological Pathways explains metabolism through reaction mechanisms; both suit readers who have finished a first course.

How to Use This Book

The book suits school leavers and first-year students about to begin biochemistry, students of chemistry, biology or medicine who want an overview before a detailed course, and general readers. Some familiarity with school chemistry and biology makes it easier to follow.

A practical reading plan:

• Read it straight through before the course begins. It can be read in a few sittings, and the order (history, small molecules, proteins, nucleic acids, energy, DNA processes, methods, applications) gives a map of the subject.
• Core for course preparation: Chapters 2–5, which correspond to the opening units of most textbooks (water and biomolecules, protein structure and enzymes, nucleic acids, bioenergetics).
• For motivation and context: Chapter 1 on the history of the field and Chapters 7–8 on current methods and applications, which show where the textbook material leads.
• Use the further reading at the end to find the next book on any topic.

While reading, keep a list of the molecules and processes named in each chapter and check later where each appears in the course textbook; the textbook then supplies the structures, mechanisms and problems the short book leaves out. Reading Chapter 3 next to the protein illustrations in Goodsell's book is a good way to fix the idea of proteins as machines.