This fourth volume in the series on biochemistry looks at foundations in modern biochemistry. Topics covered include: the genetic solution; the genetic basis of development; DNA repair; evolution in an RNA world; nitrogen fixation; solute channels; viruses; biochemistry in retrospect and propspect.

The contributors to this text, who are all biochemists who worked during the 1950s and 60s, describe what appears to them to be the conceptually significant developments in biochemistry since the mid 1950s and how these were achieved. Their aim is to make their subjects intelligible to other scientists not expert in their field.

This volume covers such quantum leaps in the field of biochemistry as the coding properties of DNA and the central dogma, manipulating DNA, extranuclear DNA, protein synthesis and the ribosome, and cell cycles.

The account in this inaugural volume of the series covers the period 1900 to 1960, but also outlines the principal developments in earlier centuries from which biochemistry emerged. Findings are considered in the light of present knowledge, rather than in a rigid historical framework.