Gene Machine: The Race to Decipher the Secrets of the Ribosome

i can’t express in words how realistic, well written snd inspiring this book is

This book follows the author’s career. The book reads like a detective story. This is an outstanding work about the elucidation of ribosomal structure. The general public may not be aware of the hard work, perseverance and imagination necessary to make scientific advances.As a graduate student I did modest work on bacterial ribosomes. My work involved a bacterium with a social life cycle. At that time, my interest was in cellular differentiation.It take scientists from several disciplines, working together or in competition with one another, to make significant scientific advances. Someone once said: “all men and women work together, whether they work together or apart “.Sometimes decades of work are necessary to achieve a breakthrough. Without this effort, we would not know how eukaryotic cells (the cells of higher order organisms), and bacteria (prokaryotes), viruses and fungi function. The structure of these living things would remain an enigma. Having this information is vital for the production of antibiotics and other medications.Many antibiotics work by blocking protein synthesis within bacterial ribosomes. When scientists know more about ribosomes and other cellular structures of bacteria, fungi and viruses, then different antibiotics, anti-viral and anti-fungal medications can be designed or discovered to selectively block cellular function at these structures.I highly recommend this clearly written and informative book written by a very modest Nobel Prize winner. This is an excellent book for anyone who wants to know how science is done. Society owes a debt of gratitude to Dr. Venki Ramakrishnan, his graduate students and support staff for their contribution to our understanding of ribosomes.

The mapping out of the ribosome was one of the big problems in biochemistry in the late 20th century for which the solution was awarded the Nobel prize in 2009. The recipients of the prize in that year were the author, Venki Ramakrishnan, Ada Yonath and Thomas Steitz. Gene Machine is the personal story of Venki's life and how he tackled the problem and all of the challenges that came with it along with the stories of the strong rivalries that were perpetually driving everyone forward. This is a book of science history as well as of personal triumph and is quite entertaining.The author writes the book as an autobiography with a focus on the work that led to his receipt of the Nobel prize. Interestingly the author started his career as a physicist but immediately once minted with his Phd moved subject and tried to involve himself in biology. The story details his early graduate student days and how he met his wife. He then moves on to his early career and some of the big problems in biochemistry. The story of the ribosome is in an of itself quite interesting. After the discovery of DNA and progress was made incrementally on how protein synthesis occurred, it was becoming incrementally more clear that the ribosome was a key component in cellular protein dynamics and that it was of high importance. The author spends a lot of time on the subject of X-Ray crystallography. In fact, these techniques are what led to his results. The subject is quite technical but also vitally important in understanding why it is so hard to have known what cellular components like the ribosome actually look like. Starting with the basic concept of a microscope, the author discusses the challenges of peering into the molecular scale and the early solutions people discovered, namely electron microscopy and x-ray crystallography. When one moves to biological matter and crystals are not the natural structure of cellular components the techniques don't work. Much of the race to understand the ribosome were dependent on coming up with acceptable crystals of the ribosome, which was a highly non-trivial endeavor. Ada Yonath pioneered the development of the crystals but got stuck on generating subsequent results, though the race seemed perpetually very close to all involved. The author goes through his path to generate ideal crystals for using crystallography to picture the ribosome. He made progress in many places including NY, Utah and seemingly most importantly Cambridge at the LMB, but throughout he was surrounded by graduate students who significantly helped achieve his goals. The story is quite interesting as were the rivalries. One is reminded that within science as like everywhere else, personalities can be big and combative and rivalries can run high. Some of the stories of the bickering between Yonath and others is quite remarkable as it just seems so childish but of course it isn't that surprising when the stakes are the Nobel Prize.An all round interesting read if one wants to know the story of the ribosome and some of the key people involved in its discovery from the perspective of Ramakrishnan. Despite the remarkable achievement, techniques in electron-microscopy had developed within years of the Prize being awarded that could do the work of the crystallographers in a matter of days rather than years indicating that if techniques change then alternative solutions can be formed in a fraction of the time. Furthermore despite the understanding of the shape of the ribosome, the understanding of its functions continued to be a bigger topic for study as understanding the snapshot vs the movie of the ribosome were completely different things. Here again, new techniques can now do this. Quite an interesting story but also a reminder that in science, projects that took decades can often, a few decades later, be done in days!

This book is absolutely brilliant. It was so enjoyable to read that I couldn't put it down.

First class service, highly recommended, excellent in every way!

Although the subject is extremely scientific, Author Venki makes easy reading. Very good indeed. You will not regret your choice

Historia contada por el propio protagonista, un joven Indio doctor en física, que migra a los EUA para iniciar una nueva carrera en biofísica; después de aprender técnicas de cristalografía y difracción de rayos X, termina en el Laboratorio de Biología Molecular en Cambridge, Inglaterra, donde reune a un grupo de científicos que terminan revolviendo la estructura molecular de la fracción 30S del ribosoma. Este trabajo lo hace acreedor al Premio Nobel en Química junto con otros dos investigadores. La trayectoria científica de Ramakrishnan incluye lecciones valiosas para los que se inician, o ya emprendieron la carrera científica.

Dr. Ramakrishnan documents his and countless other scientists' role in the tour-de-force that was the determination of the structure of the ribosome. Easily one of the greatest stories in academic science, on par with the discovery of the double helical structure of DNA and a must read for any young aspiring structural biologist.

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