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Molecular Cell Biology
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All the comments and stories posted to Hacker News that reference this book.When I was in undergrad I pretty much just read the textbooks directly and used Wikipedia for supplementary reading. I donate (nearly) every year to Wikipedia because I would not have graduated without it.This is the exact Molecular Cell Biology text we were assigned a decade ago (though I’d imagine it’s significantly updated now):
https://www.amazon.com/Molecular-Cell-Biology-Lodish/dp/0716...
The first principles of a an education in biochemistry are roughly, (1) the central dogma: DNA (transcribed) -> RNA (translated) -> Protein. (2) basic principles of diffusion and chemical equilibria.
Most biochemical systems do work by leveraging potential energy gradients across membranes. For example: there’s a lot of K+ on one side of a membrane, and very little on the other. If you selectively open a channel between the two compartments, we know that statistically the ion (K+) flow will be directionally towards where there’s less K+ (diffusion). Biochemical systems use natural properties of stochastic systems to do work: if we know K+ is traveling in one direction, you can imagine a flywheel of sorts positioned to turn that ion movement into useful energy (ion channels).
The processes by which energy is transferred and utilized is pretty much the field of biochemistry in a nutshell.
⬐ pmayrgundterI'm curious if you have come across any reference to non-ionic current flow, e.g. semi-conductive. I feel like I've seen it mentioned, possibly along the cytoskeleton and via gap junctions, but can't come up with anything offhand.
Alberts is very often held as the "standard text" (much like Grey's in Anatomy, Atkins in Physical Chemistry, or SICP). I would also recommend "Molecular Genetics of Bacteria" by Snyder and Champness (http://www.amazon.com/Molecular-Genetics-Bacteria-Snyder/dp/...). As you'd expect, it's very focused on Bacteria, but it's current and goes all the way from the basic to the very in-depth.Edit: Oh! And how could I forget Lodish (http://www.amazon.com/Molecular-Cell-Biology-Harvey-Lodish/d...)? Also very good...
⬐ AgathosHeh. "standard text"So anyway, the journal asks why I'm citing Alberts so much and I write back, "Alberts is the standard text, editor."