Hans Krebs (Monographs on the History and Philosophy of Biology)

Book info: Hans Krebs (Monographs on the History and Philosophy of Biology) (Hardcover, 504 pages) – Oxford University Press, 1993. Language: English.

This comprehensive volume completes Frederic Holmes' notable and detailed biography of Hans Krebs, from the investigator's early development through the major phase of his groundbreaking investigation, which lay the foundations upon which the modern structure of intermediary metabolism is built. With access to Krebs' research notebooks as well as to Krebs himself through more than five years of personal interviews, the author provides an insightful analysis of Hans Krebs and of the scientific process as a whole. The first volume, published in 1991, covered Krebs' formative years in Germany, his work with Otto Warburg, and his discovery of the urea cycle in 1932. This second volume reconstructs the investigative pathway and the professional and personal life of Hans Krebs, from the time of his arrival in England in 1933 until 1937, when he made the discovery for which he is best known--the formulation of the citric acid cycle. Holmes portrays Krebs' activity at the intimate level of daily interactions of thought and action, from which the characteristic patterns of scientific creativity can best be seen. Holmes' fascinating portrait of Krebs integrates the great scientist's investigative pathways with his personal life. The result is an illuminating analysis of both man and scientist that will be of interest to biochemists and historians of science. Editorial Reviews Review "This is not only a study of Kreb's research, it is also a comprehensive biography of Kreb's personal as well as scientific life....comprehensive....excellent....Holmes gives a penetrating analysis of Kreb's mode of research, its strength and its limitations. These two volumes represent an extraordinary achievement. The story of both the man and the science is full and rewarding....these volumes, taken together, form one of the greatest of scientific biographies....I know of nothing in the least comparable with Holmes's achievement here, in its depth and breadth." --Nature

"Volume 1 covers Krebs's early life and education, including the beginnings of his research career....Volume 2 covers the time from his arrival in England to publication of the paper on the citric acid cycle in 1937....These volumes have much to say to specialist and nonspecialist alike about the craft of history and the nature of twentieth-century science." --American Historical Review

"In the second volume of this biography Holmes maintains a tone and emphasis equal to that which he established in the first. An important contribution to the literature on the creative process. A well-referenced study, recommended for advanced undergraduate through faculty." --Choice

From reviews of Vol. 1: "In this large first volume of what will be a colossal biography, Holmes reconstructs the education and early career of a remarkable scientist with equally remarkable clarity, comprehensiveness, and detail....This magnificent biography demonstrates, as few books do, the intimate relations between personality and science." --Science

"A remarkable and detailed account of a significant period in the development of biochemistry, reflected in the work of a major 'architect'..." --JAMA

"Meticulous and superb scholarship-grounded in laboratory notebooks, correspondence, published scientific papers, biographical materials, and interviews...." --Journal of the History of Biology

About the Author Frederic Lawrence Holmes is at Yale University School of Medicine.