Review by Choice Review
This book's title is a bit clever and the preface is more than a little pretentious, but on the whole it is a worthwhile contribution to the literature. Programmed cell death is a process that has been widely explored for many years, but the editors state that those contributions done prior to the advent of Medline are difficult to access (have they not heard of good libraries and literature searches?). A wide variety of organisms and tissues are examined, and the common theme is carefully explored. However, the contributors avoid a history of programmed cell death and by doing so diminish their own contributions. Nevertheless, they were well selected and have certainly supported their own areas, though the papers do not cross-fertilize as the editors had hoped. This book really is a set of well-done and separate papers, directed toward the common theme of cell death, each one with an extensive bibliography that is thorough but limited to recent papers. Researchers have known of this phenomenon as a major contributor to cell development for many years and find such enthusiasm extremely gratifying. A most worthwhile addition to the literature. Upper-division undergraduates through faculty. F. W. Yow; emeritus, Kenyon College
Copyright American Library Association, used with permission.
Review by Choice Review
