History Of Science

The Scientist, Nov. 15, 1993, page 1), a good one indeed, omitted what I think is an important aspect of science history. If one examines many biology or biochemistry textbooks, one finds a woeful omission of the historical aspects of any particular subject. The student comes away feeling that, all of a sudden, insight sprung from Zeus's head, knowledge without a precedent. There is nothing to indicate that many past discoveries, som

Philip Siekevitz

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The history of experimental research is conspicuously missing, and is becoming lost to today's students. If I may say so, a singular exception to this is the third edition of a biology, biochemistry, and molecular biology textbook, Cell Structure and Function, by A. Loewy, P. Siekevitz, J. Menninger, and J. Gallant (Philadelphia, Saunders College Publishing, 1992), in which, at the beginning of each chapter, a few pages are devoted to the past important discoveries, and how they had led up to the present-day view of the science in that subfield.

PHILIP SIEKEVITZ
Rockefeller University
1230 York Ave.
New York, N.Y. 10021-6399

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