Abstract
PROF. WURMSER has produced a really excellent book on oxidation and reduction, of value not only to those interested in the physical and chemical aspects of biology but also to the general scientific reader as well. He commences with the principles of oxidative and reductive processes as illustrated by changes in valency, by electron transfer, and diminution in free energy. The various mechanisms of the operation of both photochemical and thermochemical processes of oxidation and reduction are then developed, and two chapters are devoted to a critical discussion of the hypotheses involving ‘activation’ of hydrogen and ‘activation’ of oxygen respectively. According to the author, these theories must not be regarded as rivals, but that processes of oxidation and reduction operate by one or the other mechanism. Attention is then directed to the determination of oxidation, reduction equilibria, including not only those readily reversible but also those which are only partially reversible in systems for which the evidence for reversibility is at present somewhat scanty. The volume concludes with a discussion of experimental technique and a summary of the results obtained in the study of intracellular oxidation-reduction potentials. The book is well written, in that it is a veritable mine of information yet at the same time eminently clear and readable. The printing and binding are both superior to the average text-book of French origin.
Oxydations et réductions.
René
Wurmser
. (Les problémes biologiques, Vol. 15.) Pp. xix + 381. (Paris: Les Presses universitaires de France, 1930.) 95 francs.
Article PDF
Rights and permissions
About this article
Cite this article
R., E. Oxydations et réductions . Nature 127, 923 (1931). https://doi.org/10.1038/127923b0
Issue Date:
DOI: https://doi.org/10.1038/127923b0