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Books Angewandte Chemie Conventionalapproachestodayseemto ence of separable subsystems. Other differ only slightly from the way our techniques discussed include applica- grandparents would have attacked the tions of entropy metric construction, problem, namely: 1)break down the entropy reduction methods, and genetic complexity of the system by isolating algorithms. and characterizing individual reaction The main merit of the approach steps, and 2) propose a reaction mecha- described is that it addresses one of nism constructed from a reasonable chemistry=skeyquestions:howtoderive sequence of elementary steps. The a reaction mechanism without relying approach presented in Determination on educated guesses and on “chemical of Complex Reaction Mechanisms is intuition”, which although sometimes profoundly different. It is based on the powerful is often misleading. Specifi- simple fact that today chemists are cally, the book provides intriguing tools equipped with a powerful arsenal of that might be applicable to many com- Determination of Complex analytical techniques. These techniques plex systems in the various modern Reaction Mechanisms allow the simultaneous monitoring of branches of chemistry and biology. hundreds of different chemical species, However, it should be clearly stated Analysis of Chemi- thus providing an enormous amount of that these tools have been tested for cal, Biological, and data regarding the full reaction mecha- only a few examples. The topics covered Genetic Networks. nism.Themainvalueofthisbookisthat are essentially a compilation of the By John Ross, Igor it discusses experimental protocols and remarkable results obtained by the Schreiber, and Mar- theoretical methods for the rational authors during the last 15 years. How- cel O. Vlad. Oxford elucidation of reaction networks and ever, the book is definitely more than a University Press, their kinetic parameters by utilizing collection of loosely connected research Oxford 2005. such techniques. In other words, it is a articles. The authors make a serious, and 226pp., hardcover manual that describes nontraditional in my opinion successful, effort to pres- $94.50.—ISBN methodologies for the determination of ent complex and unconventional topics 0-19-517868-8 reaction mechanisms from kinetic data in a coherent, interesting, and useful sets. way. How quickly this powerful Thelastdecadeshaveseenaremarkable The book is organized in 13 chap- approach will be embraced by a large advancement in our understanding of ters, and also contains contributions number of experimentalists remains to molecular and supramolecular struc- from Arkin, Oefner, and Zamboni. be seen. This brings me to the question: tures in chemistry, materials science, Following a very brief introduction of who is the intended reader? Clearly, to and biology. While these advances basic terms and definitions, Chapter 3 appreciate this book the potential haveundoubtedlyenjoyedthelimelight, reviews some of the data-mining meth- reader should have a solid background surprising and profound progress has odologies suitable for the analyses dis- in elementary statistics, linear algebra, also occurred in the field of chemical cussed in this book. These methodolo- andcalculus. Those who want to use the kinetics. The book Determination of gies range from mass spectrometry and techniques described should also be Complex Reaction Mechanisms,bycapillaryelectrophoresistoDNAmicro- willing to write their own computer Ross, Schreiber, and Vlad, describes arrays and genome-wide analyses of codes. Beyond that, I can envision a some of these achievements in the mRNA and proteins. Specific types of broad readership, which ranges from form of a 226-page treatise. It is worth data analysis are presented in the main graduate students in physical and bio- mentioning that John Ross, Professor part of the book. Chapter 5, for exam- physical chemistry to senior scientists in Emeritus at Stanford University and ple, discusses the response of complex other fields who face the notorious 1999 National Medal of Science lau- systems to pulse perturbations, from problem of determining reaction mech- reate, has been for decades one of the which causal chemical connectivities anisms or similar network features for leading figures in this field. Together can be derived. This interesting chapter complex chemical, biochemical, phar- with Berry and Rice, he also authored a starts with the analysis of simple maceutical, or genetic systems. well-known textbook on physical unbranched chain reactions, and leads chemistry. into an experimental case study, a part Oliver Steinbock Determination of Complex Reaction of glycolysis, which is discussed in Chap- Department of Chemistry and Mechanisms assumes a basic knowledge ter 6. This example is examined further Biochemistry of chemical kinetics. However, the way in the discussion of “correlation metric Florida State University that it approaches chemical kinetics is construction” of reaction mechanisms, Tallahassee (USA) highly unconventional, interesting, and whichIconsidertobeveryexciting.The useful. The key question behind most of central aim of this technique is to yield DOI: 10.1002/anie.200585406 this book is “How do I unravel the reaction diagrams similar to those that a mechanism of a complex chemical, bio- chemist would draw for complex mech- chemical, or genetic reaction network?” anisms, or at least to indicate the pres- Angew. Chem. Int. Ed. 2006, 45, 7491 32006Wiley-VCH Verlag GmbH & Co. KGaA, Weinheim 7491
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