My Life in Science
Brenner, Sydney; BioMed Central Limited, London, 2001,
v191 pp., ISBN 0-9540278-0-9, $21 or 14.99.
One name that should come very close to the top of any
list of the movers and shakers of the heady days of molecular biology is surely that of the author of this little book.
Brenner has been associated intimately with the most
productive thinking about the coding problem (how the
base sequence in DNA is related to the amino acid sequence of proteins), with the discovery of mRNA (the molecular intermediate between DNA and the machinery for
protein biosynthesis), with much impetus behind the various genome projects, with the establishment of the nematode worm Caenorhabditis elegans as a model for understanding the molecular basis of development of animals
and especially of their nervous systems, and with work
on the Japanese puffer fish (called fugu) whose genome
is very compact, because it contains little repetitive and
junk DNA. His influence, as a person and as a scientist,
in establishing the molecular foundations of present-day
biology and biotechnology, has been nothing if not
immense.
Based on 15 h of videotaped interviews with Lewis
Wolpert in London, England, which have been edited by
E. C. Friedberg and E. Lawrence, and supplemented by
linking and explanatory passages (which I found informative and unobtrusive), the book highlights the scientific
development and expression of Brenners ideas during an
enviably productive and creative career pursued initially in
South Africa but mostly in the United Kingdom and with a
brief stint in the United States. Very helpful, especially for
the novice scientific reader, are the footnotes in the form of
references to published work and of biographic material on
scientists referred to in the text.
In Brenners style and carefully chosen words one
senses the powerful drive that impelled a precocious
young man of immigrant parents, one who had learned to
read from newspapers spread as tablecloths by the age of
four years and who had received a bursary to study medicine at the University of the Witwatersrand at the age of 14
years, to become a protagonist in the uncovering of the
most fundamental aspects of modern biology. The devouring passion of his dedication to science and his legendary
love of almost untiring conversation (which he used as a
mechanism for generating ideas from which valuable nuggets can be filtered out and refined), of words and of play
on words, permeate most pages. Brilliance (almost dazzling), self-confidence (substantial, but based on solid
knowledge and inner security), energy (seemingly endless),
and a cynical stance toward established authority (scien-